The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd "Relationships & Recovery"The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd "Relationships & Recovery"
The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast by Freedom Recovery Services of Greenville
Mike Todd shares a personal story about relationships in early recovery, how a year focused on meetings and spiritual growth changed his life, and why safer standards like naloxone access matter in recovery housing. The episode blends humour, honesty and practical experience aimed at people living with or supporting substance use recovery.
16:47•9 Sept 2021
Relationships, Recovery and a Year for You with Mike Todd
Episode Overview
- Jumping into relationships in early recovery can repeat old patterns and deepen emotional pain.
- Taking a dedicated year for meetings, step work, prayer, meditation and service can build a stronger sense of self before dating.
- Learning to be friends with the opposite sex without sex helps break unhealthy relationship habits.
- Long-term, healthy relationships in recovery are possible when both partners have strong spiritual and recovery foundations.
- Recovery housing needs standards and support, such as naloxone access and training, to protect vulnerable residents.
“I was looking for someone to fix me. I was looking for someone to fill that hole in me that I now know that only God could fill.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? In this candid share from The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast, Mike Todd talks straight from the heart about two big themes: romantic relationships in early sobriety and safer recovery housing in South Carolina. You’ll hear Mike describe Labour Day in his neighbourhood, surrounded by parties and alcohol, while he and his wife enjoy the cookout without drinking.
He sums up his own limits with a simple line: “one is too many, and a thousand is definitely, definitely too much for me.” From there, he digs into the messy reality of dating in early recovery, admitting he ignored the classic suggestion to avoid relationships for a year and paid the price with a string of painful breakups.
Mike shares how he was “looking for someone to fix me” and trying to plug that “huge hole” left when the drugs and alcohol were gone. After yet another heartbreak, he finally followed the advice he’d been given: a year focused on meetings, step work, prayer, meditation, service, and learning to be friends with the opposite sex without sex.
That year of spiritual work and self-acceptance set the stage for meeting his future wife, Renee, and building a marriage that has lasted decades, grandkids and all. The episode also shifts into Mike’s passion for recovery housing. He explains how, years ago, people in recovery simply lived together and kept each other accountable, and how that informal help has grown into a full-blown industry with vulnerable residents and real risks of exploitation.
To respond, he describes helping form the South Carolina Recovery Housing Association, focused on mentoring operators and making naloxone a basic standard in recovery homes. Anyone wondering how relationships, faith, community, and practical safety measures can all work together in sobriety will find plenty to chew on here. What might a “year for you” look like in your own recovery?
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