Victim or AgentVictim or Agent
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Coach Blu and Marissa break down the "Victim vs Agent" mindset, contrasting fear, blame and scarcity with faith, accountability and abundance. Their conversation connects everyday stress and Covid-19 pressures to practical ways of choosing agency in sobriety.
51:58•30 Mar 2020
Victim or Agent: Choosing Your Role in Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Shifting language from "I can’t" to "I’m not going to" or "How can I?" changes how much control you feel over your choices.
- Moving from blame to accountability restores personal power and reduces the pull toward relapse.
- Replacing fear with faith (in yourself, in the process, in what you can’t yet see) uses the same mental energy but produces healthier outcomes.
- Recovering people can reuse the creativity and problem-solving once spent on getting high to build a meaningful sober life.
- Victims wait to be rescued, while agents accept that "we are the troops" and commit to doing what it takes for sobriety and wellbeing.
“"Victims live in a mindset of 'I can’t'… agents look at the situation and say, 'How can I?'"”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This episode of Addict II Athlete zooms in on a simple but challenging choice: stay a victim of addiction or become an agent of sobriety. Coach Blu Robinson, a licensed mental health therapist and substance abuse counsellor, teams up with Athletic Director Marissa Robinson to break down what they call the "Victim vs Agent" mindset.
Using everyday examples from Covid-19 lockdown life, parenting stress, and early recovery struggles, they show how the stories you tell yourself shape your actions. You’ll hear them contrast beliefs like "I can’t" versus "How can I?", fear versus faith, and blaming others versus taking accountability. Blu jokes about people saying "I can’t drink" in early recovery and flips it on its head: what if it became "I’m not going to"?
As Marissa puts it, "Our words we choose give so much power or take all our power away." They also talk about the difference between consuming and producing, especially in addiction: are you draining time, money and energy, or creating love, service and solutions? One powerful section points out that people with addictions have already proved they can problem-solve under pressure – the same ingenuity once used to get high can be redirected into building a sober life.
Throughout, the tone stays practical and honest, with plenty of humour (yes, even about toilet paper hoarding) while still acknowledging the seriousness of relapse risk, isolation, and financial worry.
The real punchline is their final contrast: victims wait to be rescued; agents "do what it takes" and remember, "We are the troops." If you’re asking yourself whether you’re stuck in victim mode or ready to act as an agent of your own recovery, this conversation might be the nudge you need. Which side of that line are you standing on today?
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