What My Pitbull Honey Taught Me About Addiction

What can a pitbull teach us about addiction, relapse, and recovery? This episode explores addiction through the story of Honey, a pitbull whose intense prey drive offers a surprisingly useful way to understand dopamine, reward salience, limbic activation, prefrontal control, and why the addicted brain can continue pursuing something long after the pleasure is gone. It also looks at why knowing the consequences often fails to stop addictive behavior, how recovery retrains the brain, and why structure can create more freedom over time.

The conversation also moves into relapse, shame, accountability, and the experience of coming home after things have gone badly. Drawing from addiction treatment, Al-Anon, neuroplasticity, and the story of the prodigal son, the episode explores how compassion can coexist with consequences and how recovery involves learning the wiring you carry and building a life that works with it. Honey may always have a prey drive, and an addictive brain may always carry its own vulnerabilities. Learning how to live wisely with both is the work.

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