I Get By (And Sober) With A Little Help From My PeersI Get By (And Sober) With A Little Help From My Peers
Addiction Medicine Made Easy
Dr Casey Grover talks with peer recovery specialist Mark Ehrenkranz about how lived experience, hospital-based peer support and multiple recovery pathways can make sobriety feel achievable. Their discussion focuses on practical tools, honest reflection and the power of human connection in addiction care.
46:53•25 May 2026
Peer Power on the Wards: How Lived Experience Supports Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Peer recovery specialists use their own lived experience to make hospital-based addiction care feel relatable, less judgemental and more hopeful.
- There are many valid recovery pathways, including AA, SMART Recovery, Buddhist and secular options, and peer workers help people find a path that fits rather than pushing one model.
- Simple practices like diaphragmatic breathing, vagus nerve toning and brief cold exposure can train people to become more comfortable with discomfort instead of turning to substances.
- Peer roles benefit both patients and the peers themselves, but require solid personal recovery, honest self-reflection and ongoing education, not just a short course.
- Clinicians and systems that value peers, integrate them with MAT and refer to peer recovery centres can greatly strengthen support for people with substance use disorders.
“Hope, to me, is not a wish or a prayer. It’s hearing other people’s experience.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between emergency physician–turned–addiction specialist Dr Casey Grover and certified peer recovery specialist Mark Ehrenkranz gives a grounded, boots-on-the-ward answer. Aimed at clinicians and anyone curious about practical addiction care, the episode breaks down what peer support really looks like in a thousand-bed hospital.
Mark brings more than 40 years of recovery experience, plenty of relapse honesty, and a sense of humour about his own story, from “Belushi weekends” in Hollywood to landing in the very behavioural health unit where he now works. As he puts it, “My brain was hijacked. I lied. I manipulated. I conned.
That was part of the malady.” You’ll hear how Mark spends his days going bedside from the ED to the ICU, opening the blinds, sharing his own history, and helping patients become “radically honest”. He explains how peer workers bridge stigma, translate medical concepts like MAT into plain language, and give people hope by simply saying, “I know how you feel.
I remember when I was going through that.” For professionals thinking about hiring peers – or people in recovery wondering if this work is for them – the chat digs into training, pay, and why an 80‑hour course is only one small part of being ready.
Dr Grover and Mark stress that lived experience is powerful, but it must sit alongside humility, ongoing learning, and a willingness to see many pathways, from AA to SMART Recovery to Buddhist and secular options. Mark also shares his “Navy Seal recovery” approach: simple, repeatable practices like diaphragmatic breathing, vagus nerve toning, and cold showers to become “more comfortable with discomfort” instead of reaching for a drink.
If you’ve ever wondered how peer support can make recovery feel possible in a hospital bed, this is a good place to start asking new questions about your own practice or your own sobriety. Could a peer with lived experience be the missing link in your approach to recovery care?
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