181: Lauren - Beauty from the Broken

Lauren Brown: From Alcohol & Heroin to Recovery, Motherhood, and Becoming a Counselor | Rock Bottom with Ryan

 

On Rock Bottom with Ryan, Lauren Brown from Long Island shares her story of growing up around alcoholism, family dysfunction, and early trauma, first drinking at 8–9 and quickly chasing “more.” She describes bullying and self-harm in adolescence, escalating teen drug use (cocaine and opiates), functional success in school, and later severe alcoholism intensified after gastric sleeve surgery, leading to blackouts, violence, a 2017 accident, and a 2019 DWI. After her marriage ended, she became involved with a partner, relapsed into heroin, progressed to IV heroin/fentanyl, crack, and meth, became homeless, accumulated multiple charges during COVID, and survived a near-intentional fentanyl overdose. Facing prison time, she entered detox and long-term treatment, relapsed in early rehab, then self-reported drinking on Nov 3, 2020—her sobriety date—committing to recovery, AA, therapy, and steps. She later became a drug and alcohol counselor, built a family, and created an art business focused on finding beauty in the life cycle, emphasizing openness, teachability, boundaries, and balance.

 

00:00 Early Friendship Hook 01:03 Detox Decision 01:31 Show Intro Sponsor 02:46 Meet Lauren Brown 04:25 Childhood Alcohol Normalized 06:17 Dad Mental Health Secrets 08:10 Siblings Divorce Codependency 12:13 New Town Teen Turmoil 14:00 Finding Misfit Crowd 17:41 Older Friends Shoplifting Rush 19:57 High School Drugs Escalate 24:17 Functional Drinking Adult Life 24:31 Surgery Blackouts Spiral 27:59 Marriage Collapse After DWI 30:18 Violence New Relationship DWI 34:04 Dating App Recovery Guy 36:04 Heroin Kit Discovery 36:26 Back to Opiates 37:06 First Time Shooting 38:17 Homeless and Spiraling 40:02 COVID and New Charges 42:26 Fentanyl Overdose 45:36 Detox Setbacks 48:02 Treatment and Breakup 51:12 Rehab Drama to Womens Program 54:58 Rebuilding a Life 01:00:14 Art as Healing 01:04:05 Service and Harm Reduction 01:06:01 Advice and Closing