The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd & Chekesha Kay EllisThe #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd & Chekesha Kay Ellis
The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast by Freedom Recovery Services of Greenville
Host Mike Todd talks with author and advocate Chekesha K. Ellis about her opioid use after a knee injury, losing her hearing, and finding recovery through faith and family support. The conversation also covers stigma, treatment barriers, naloxone outreach in grocery stores, and the importance of sharing recovery stories openly.
58:45•3 Sept 2021
From Knee Injury to National Advocate: Chekesha K. Ellis on Life, Opioids and Hope
Episode Overview
- Anyone, including those from loving and structured homes, can develop substance use disorder after medical opioid prescriptions.
- An "aha moment" of choosing life can be a turning point, but ongoing support and a higher power or guiding principle are often crucial.
- Practical barriers such as hearing loss, lack of interpreters in meetings and Medicaid limitations can seriously affect access to effective treatment.
- Language matters; shifting away from labels like "crackhead" and "pill head" can reduce stigma and make honesty about recovery safer.
- Grassroots outreach—such as offering naloxone and sharing stories in everyday places like grocery stores—can save lives and spread hope directly in communities.
“People need hope like they need water, like bottled water.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between host Mike Todd and guest Chekesha K. Ellis gives a very human answer, mixing hard truth, faith, humour and grassroots activism. Chekesha, founder of Chase No More and author of *A Life of Kayos: My Opioid Journey Through Hell, Hope & Healing*, shares how a simple knee injury and a prescription for 120 hydrocodone tablets pulled her into a nine‑year opioid addiction.
Raised in a strict, loving Pentecostal home with a pastor father and “first lady” mum, she shows that, as Mike says, “anyone can suffer from substance use disorders,” no matter how solid their upbringing looks. She talks frankly about forging prescriptions, landing on the DEA’s radar, losing her hearing, and hitting what she calls her “aha moment” – that split second where “you have to choose life” without time to arrange childcare or logistics.
Her path into recovery in 2010 leaned heavily on her Christian faith, her parents’ prayers, and their message that “you have to forgive yourself first.” The episode also highlights practical barriers: being deaf in 12‑step meetings with no interpreter, having only Medicaid and receiving “the basic, bare minimum” in treatment, and the extra weight of stigma as a Black woman.
Mike and Chekesha bounce off each other with warmth and light humour, even as they tackle serious themes like discrimination, labels such as “crackhead” and “pill head”, and the long shadow of the opioid crisis. You’ll hear how Chekesha now takes recovery straight to the people, setting up tables outside Brown’s ShopRite stores, handing out naloxone, talking with families, and giving away more overdose‑reversal kits than books.
Both she and Mike stress recovering out loud, building community, and, as she puts it, sharing the “recovery layers” because “people need hope like they need water, like bottled water.” Looking for a mix of real‑life struggle, faith, and practical advocacy in the fight against substance use disorder? This one might be for you.
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