The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd "The Void & How Recovery Fills It"The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd "The Void & How Recovery Fills It"
The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast by Freedom Recovery Services of Greenville
Mike Todd reflects on how childhood loss created a void in his life, how substances temporarily filled it, and how recovery and community later gave him connection and purpose. He also talks about recovery housing in South Carolina and efforts to support residents and operators through naloxone access and advocacy.
13:48•19 Aug 2021
Filling the Void: Mike Todd on Loss, Connection and Recovery
Episode Overview
- Early grief and family trauma created a deep sense of disconnection that fed into substance use.
- Recovery offered a spiritual path and a “God of my understanding” supported by people in the programme.
- Mentors and older peers in recovery helped replace lost role models and taught healthier ways to live and relate to others.
- A strong sense of “we” is central to staying substance-free, and asking for help is presented as essential.
- The South Carolina Recovery Housing Association works to support operators, reduce exploitation, and ensure recovery houses carry and understand naloxone.
“We can’t do this alone. That’s the thing. Get those people. If you feel like you have a void, find those people and ask them for help.”
What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? Here, Mike Todd sits in his kitchen in Greenville, South Carolina, talking over the sound of crickets and the heat of the “dog days of August”, and opens up about the hole that addiction dug in his life – and how recovery helped to fill it. Speaking straight from experience, Mike traces his “void” back to childhood loss.
At 11, he lost his beloved grandmother, Dixie Lee, his deeply spiritual cousin Todd, and, around the same time, his father went to prison. That triple hit of grief and chaos came long before the bottles: “That’s a lot to digest. That’s a lot to deal with as a kid.” Soon after, he found the liquor cabinet and started looking to substances as a solution.
Decades later, with around 30 years in recovery, Mike talks about how a spiritual path and a strong “we” have helped repair that fracture. He explains how people in recovery became stand-ins for the mentors he lost, saying he finds pieces of Todd in “a lot of the men in the program” and in older women who walked with him and taught him how to treat others.
“Almost every step begins with we,” he says, stressing that recovery has “filled that void from back when I was 11 years old.” The episode also touches on wider community work, including recovery housing in South Carolina and efforts to get naloxone into every recovery house through the South Carolina Recovery Housing Association. Mike highlights the vulnerability of people seeking recovery and the importance of standards, training and advocacy.
This one’s aimed at anyone who feels that aching gap inside – people in recovery, their families, and those working in housing or advocacy – and reminds them: “We can’t do this alone… find your we.” Whose wisdom could help fill your own void today?
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