The Courage To Be Honest (Episode 5)The Courage To Be Honest (Episode 5)
Relational Recovery
This conversation focuses on the hard work of becoming truly honest about addiction, self-reliance, and the need for professional help and community. Through a personal story, it highlights how faith, safe relationships and humility can open the door to genuine recovery.
5:47•7 Sept 2026
The Courage To Be Honest About Addiction and Asking for Help
Episode Overview
- Honesty in recovery often begins with admitting, "I can’t do this on my own" and recognising that life has become unmanageable.
- Relying solely on personal strength and willpower over many years can keep someone stuck in addiction, even if they can stay clean for short periods.
- Safe, healthy relationships and accountability are essential, rather than surrounding yourself with people who enable unhealthy behaviours.
- Professional treatment can become necessary after repeated attempts to self-manage addiction have failed.
- Christian spirituality and the recognition of needing God and other people are presented as central supports in the recovery process.
“I finally had to be the honest I’ve ever been as far as courage and brave to say I actually need help and I need professional help.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol and other drugs? This conversation on Relational Recovery leans into that question by looking at what it actually takes to be brutally honest about addiction and the need for help. Host Wes Thompson and co-host Austin Hill talk with a man who spent eight years convinced he could think his way out of his heroin addiction.
He describes years of white-knuckling it, managing a few months clean at a time, only to end up back where he started.
As he puts it, “I finally had to be the honest I’ve ever been … to say I actually need help and I need professional help.” The episode focuses on the shift from self-reliance to admitting, “I can’t do this on my own.” Wes connects this to the first step from AA’s big book, naming how honesty begins with recognising that life has become unmanageable and that help from God and other people is essential.
They talk openly about how hard it can be to see honesty as strength when shame and stigma scream that asking for help means failure.
You’ll hear about the role of safe relationships, accountability, and Christian spirituality in recovery, along with the humbling reality of losing jobs, housing, and stability before finally reaching out at three in the morning with a simple text: “I’m done and I’m ready.” Aimed at anyone stuck in cycles of unwanted behaviour, or supporting someone who is, this episode offers a grounded mix of personal story, psychology, and faith.
It asks a challenging but hopeful question: what would it look like for you to be that honest about your need for help today?
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