Episode 118 - Music, Addiction and Recovery

Music has a way of bringing people together, and is a language we share.   Recovery has its own language, within its own culture of addiction. We are all affected by substance use disorder (SUD) - personally, through family and friends, and as a society, economically and politically.   The numbers tell part of the story, however it’s the people that who have lived this struggle and the people who fight for recovery and education everyday that bring this story to the surface - into our living rooms, boardrooms, schools and the stage.   Above The Basement met with people who care deeply about this cause: those in recovery, the doctors who treat and support our patients and families who have lost loved ones, and musicians who have had first hand experience of with addiction and understand the toll it can have on careers and families.   Our discussions began in August 2018 with Kristen Williams Haseotes, the founder of Above the Noise Foundation, Maureen Cavanagh, author of "If You Love Me - A Mother's Journey Through Her Daughters Opioid Addiction and Robin Houston-Bean who honors her son every day having started The Sun Will Rise Foundation, Inc..   We continued our discussions, learning along the way with addiction medicine experts Dr. Sarah Wakeman and Dr. Laura Kehoe from the Mass General Substance Use Disorders Initiative.   At RecoveryFest 2018 we sat with Fitz (Fitz & The Tantrums), Livingston Taylor, B-Rain, Grace Kelly and several others in recovery.   There is a sense of pride in all of these voices, and our guests are people with hopes and dreams, successes and failures, ups and downs just like the rest of us.   The synergy of music and the message of recovery was undeniably powerful and special on September 29th at Recovery Fest 2018.   There was palpable energy without substances, elation without drugs, and all around us, simply so many reasons to care.   Click below to listen and please share. Song List: Song 1:   Amazing Grace - Grace Kelly Song 2:   Otherside - Macklemore Song 3:   America the beautiful - Livingston Taylor Song 4:   More than just a dream - Fitz and the Tantrums Song 5:   Live my life - B-RAiN