Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
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Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
From Isolation To Connection: Healing Addiction’s Hidden Roots with Severn Lang part 2
A single fridge door can tell the truth you’ve been avoiding. When our guest boxed up their home to break a cycle of compulsive shopping, a shelf of condiments sparked an unexpected reckoning with grief, a father’s dry alcoholism, and the way addiction quietly changes shape. What follows is a candid, practical journey from clutter to clarity—using 12-step tools not just to stop a behavior, but to understand the feelings that built it.
We swap stories about how recovery becomes a way of living: creating literal space so better things can enter, replacing numbing with writing and meditation, and choosing community over isolation. The conversation gets personal and grounded, from carnivore diet routines and motorcycle “moving meditations” to the stark honesty of recognizing transferable addictions like sympathy-seeking, overwork, or endless caffeine. The body weighs in too. Autoimmune flares and carpal tunnel become loud nudges to tune life toward purpose instead of pushing through pain.
Creativity sits at the center. As a painter, leatherworker, filmmaker, and playwright, our guest finds that making art calms the nervous system and brings pain down to a whisper. Their new immersive play about a recovery meeting invites audiences into a safer space where loss, divorce, and addiction can be named without shame—normalizing recovery language for anyone who needs a starting point. Along the way we share sponsor wisdom that sticks: if you want to use, have a milkshake; if that doesn’t work, have another. Then follow three rules—don’t use, go to meetings, be nice—especially to yourself.
If you’re carrying more than you can see, this story offers tools you can try today and a community you can return to tomorrow. Listen, share with someone who needs a gentle nudge, and leave a review so more people can find their way to this circle.
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Here is the link for Sunday's 4 pm Pacific time Zoom meeting
Notice my alcoholism is gathering things and I'm excessive in shopping, excessive and gathering things, and excessive um just excessive and that and so I applied my my program into shopaholics type of thing. Um and so I decided to declutter things. Nice. So I gather my items into moving boxes and left them in each room. And whenever I got like I needed something, I took it out and I put it away when I used it. And then I applied why I am holding on to these items. And if it's an emotional tie, then I use the program, my 12-step program, to figure out what's the emotional tie. And I have to use um is it a need, is it a want? Is it a is it a regret? And like, okay, what is my part to it? Is it something that I can work with, or is it is it can I give it as an heirloom to someone? So I I use a process to get rid of it or keep it. But if I keep it, am I able to pass it along?
SPEAKER_00:You know, then I'm insightful. I I I um I don't think that people realize so much that an addiction is easily transferred into something else. Like you see the guys at the 12-step program, they're all smoking, chain smoking and drinking cup after cup of coffee. Yeah, and it's like, well, okay, I guess you're not drinking anymore, but you're doing something else that's pretty it it is transferable.
SPEAKER_01:Like, so I had the nice blessing to be a hairstylist to notice clients and habits of like I had some clients that are divorced, and they'll say that they're divorced, even it's been 15 years, and I finally had enough with a client. I'm like, bro, you're single, you got a divorce 15 years ago. Yeah, you're just single, right? And I'm not gonna feed your ego anymore. You're yeah, you're addicted to that sympathy, and I'm I'm not gonna give it to you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, you're good for that for a year or so, but I'm not gonna be able to do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like you're no, you're no longer divorced anymore, man. Like you, you need to work a like I can help you. Like, so I applied that that recovery program to that that mentality of an addiction, of that sympathy. I'm like, let's work that, let's work that out, you know, let's work that out. So uh it could be applied to a lot of different things. So when I was decluttering, when I was trying to figure out uh creating space, physical space, so I can let things in. So that was one thing I was trying to do is creating more space, freedom for something new to come into my life, because I was hoarding and creating problems and not creating room for something to enter. So I decided to remove things like old clothes and items in my apartment. I got rid of items I don't need.
SPEAKER_00:And I had very insightful because that's exactly what happens when you remove whether it's a relationship or uh uh whatever career or whatever it is, or items, all of a sudden new things come and take their place, and they're usually better for you.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly, exactly. And all of a sudden, I when I got into the kitchen, this was an epitome, like like aha. Uh I got to the refrigerator, and uh I I was cleaning the refrigerator out, and and at this time I was on the carnivore diet, and I I'm on I'm still on the carnivore, but a little dirty on the carnivore. But the carnivore is basically just meat and fats and dairy, and that's that's pretty much it. Um and I looked at into the door, and I'm like, I have a lot of condiments, like a lot of condiments, like an excessive amount. And uh that bothered me. And luckily, I was in tuned enough. That's a great thing about recovery. You become more beware, sure, insightful. I'm like, okay, this is something I need to work on, let's hold off on it, let's write about it, or let's just put a little jock note and just put it away and come back to it. So shut the door, wrote about it, thought about it. When I meditate or I need to think about something, I'll write it and I'll go on a motorcycle ride. Okay, and that's my present meditation. So I go on a ride. So I wrote on it a month later, came back to it. I'm like, oh uh, I did a meditation, walked to the the refrigerator, and I was like, it's my dad.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01:Um my dad, he admitted to me and to my mom that he is a dry alcoholic.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, he made a couple comments, but before I got sober, when I was younger, in my in my early 20s, he admitted that he could have been or is or was is was a dry alcoholic. And now I reflect on at that time, he ref I reflected on he would drink a a koozy, uh like a 40-ounce koozie of dry instant decaf tea.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:About seven of them a day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, eggs.
SPEAKER_01:Like excessively. Then he would uh like uh uh soy sauce. Every time we have rice or something like that, he would have like like a cup of soy sauce on his rice, or he would have like a cup of ketchup on his eggs, or like uh he would have two cups of like um syrup on his pancakes, like excessive amount of condiments. All right. And um back in the day, it was Pace or Sam's Club. Back I'm from Des Moines, Iowa, technically Urbindale. So these we we buy these big bulks of condiments, right? And he would excessively use these condiments. Okay, and subconsciously I would hold on to these condiments because it was a constant reminder. So I held on to this grief or this um sorrow about my father, and uh, I'm still in the process, and that was five years ago. I'm still grieving and still processing the death and also the lost connection and dealing with the the type of neglect I'm dealing with.
SPEAKER_00:But you're actually processing it now. I'm still processing it, but you are actually processing it, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'm I'm processing it, yeah. Sort of doing something and now being aware of it, but you're you're working through it now.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. It and and the fact that I was acknowledging it and not drinking over it, right? You know, um, that's the beautiful beautiful part of of recovery is finding the tools to deal with something. And the healing part is finally the the the letting go and being present of the having that aha, and like all of a sudden your system is like finally, finally, thank you, uh, for letting that go. And then able to help someone else in recognizing I know that sign. I I can see that you might be holding on to some type of grief.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I you know you are aware, I'm sure deeply aware that this is not just a thing you have to accomplish, but it's a lifetime of of practice. And these problems that you have are part of your DNA and you're wired, it's never gonna go away. It's like my cancer. I I have to deal with it for the rest of my life. Even when I have it gone, it's still gonna want to come back and it'll always be looking for a place to come in and and and and set those bad habits up that allow it to be. So, you know, you've you've acknowledged or accepted the fact that you know this is my new life. I I live this way now. Yeah. You you talk a lot about your art, um, but you didn't really um kind of clarify about that. I know you're you're working in film and and writing. Yeah. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your art?
SPEAKER_01:So um, yeah, thank you. I I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00:Um, you know, we're we're gonna go a little long because we're we're in this. I don't want to, I don't want to cut it. I think this is beautiful. Let's just keep going.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. I appreciate the time. And um, you know, uh so I I do a couple different artistic uh capabilities I'm creativity is so so important. All right, the human soul, the human body. We we humans we like to create, we have to create, and my my source of creation is art. And I I paint uh abstract painting, and I I also work with leather, so I create that way. And also my new adventures are uh uh ironically, playwriting slash uh uh filmmaking. Uh and my new adventure is uh I'm developing a play about recovery.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm also working on um a couple of short films right now uh about recovery as well. And it it is it's interesting. Finally, you once you it you're in your your zone, your clicking zone, all of a sudden like your your health issues are it aligns and it kind of disappears. Like you don't notice them, right? You know they're there, right? But all of a sudden they kind of like dwindle a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:But they're not such a stark feature that has to be reckoned with every time. Like correct, correct.
SPEAKER_01:You can you can now navigate your life, and it's there, but yeah, you're you know they're there, it's just like they're not they're not present as much. Like so, um like this is what I noticed about health and then with being lined within your passions. Uh um, so I have an autoimmune disease, and it's interesting about autoimmune, all autoimmune, it's it's the root cause is unknown. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_00:But something your body attacks itself. Okay, great.
SPEAKER_01:Right. But if you talk to uh uh a doctor and a psychologist, uh the common denominator is trauma. Okay, so you get those two those professions talking together, they're like, oh wait, your person over here that has trauma and your person are the same people that have autoimmune, okay.
SPEAKER_00:Something about it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Something about it. And so if you try to heal the trauma, and so something reveals itself. So I notice when I'm in align with my passions, my autoimmune pain generally softens. Nice. And uh when I'm not in alignment, it flares up. All right, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:Pretty dramatic. It's a it's it's a pretty loud voice talking to you.
SPEAKER_01:It is, it really is. Like um, I I went to a retreat, a meditation retreat this past weekend, and we did some harmonation uh meditation things, and all of a sudden, if you're a musician, I used to sing. Um I was a music art major when I first went to college, and we studied uh the God note a little bit. And the God notes is a harmonization note that you generally cannot produce, it's a harmonization between voices, and um I produced it within my own chamber of my my vocals. Wow. Um, and it was an instant um reminder that um I had to get back into harmonization of myself.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh and and it was something that had I I was off kilter now that this past weekend was a reminder, like, okay, I'm on the right path.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, so um you had to keep the course straight. And so if you're in recovery or seeking recovery, it hopefully you're aware that nudges will get you back on course. And I'm in that I'm aware of these these these nudges, like I'll give you an example. This is very so fresh in my life right now, and I'll tell you. So as a hairstylist, old career, I'm doubling careers right now, filmmaker, playwright, and hairstylist. Yeah, I'm multi-creative, talented. Um, but as a hairstylist, the normal health issues are carpal tunnel, and um I'm developing carpal tunnel in both hands. So I'm I'm unable to grasp it correctly. And in the last couple years, uh I've been wanting or thinking I should move forward into a different path, and I've been unable to step out of it. Okay. Now I have no choice to do so. And either I can fight it or I can be core, like listen to my body and be like, okay, this is time. And I'm not gonna fight it because obviously, if I fight it, I'm gonna have more physical problems.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. It's one of those things, the more you do, the more it develops, and the less you can correct.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and the universe is letting me know, like God, the universe, it's like, hey, this is me saying, go. Right, right. That's the thing. Please. Yeah, exactly. So I'm developing this play about recovery, and uh it is a passion of mine, and it's it's designed and spread the world of the spread the world of recovery to everyone as a commonality um to make it common and to spread the idea that everyone is addictive, has addictive traits. And um and it's the introductory to recovery, and but in an artistic way. So I'm really excited about that. I'm gonna be testing it here shortly in Los Angeles in January. And after that, I'm hoping to my goal is to hit other cities after that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, um we have a uh nonprofit called Gardens of Hope. Um, nice hours south of LA. And uh we use our gardens for therapeutic horticulture and people overcoming addiction or mental health issues or physical issues or special needs of any kind, um, education. We do all those things through the gardens. I would love to uh walk the gardens with you when you come out this way.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um, that'd be awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe we'll record an episode live just uh in person. Yeah, I love that. Well, well, definitely keep that in mind. So as you're going through this, you know what I've noticed, many of our guests they go through a problem, uh, an obstacle, a trauma, a calamity, whatever you want to call it, that thing. Yours is addiction, mine's cancer, somebody else's is is uh a disease, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. And we decide we're gonna overcome it. Overcome it, or we we we find a way through it uh as it is, you know. Sometimes overcoming it means we we we live our life with it, but not being ruled by it or not being you know controlled by it. Um, but generally what I see the people that come to this show, um they find a way to help others with it. And I know you're working through your art. Is there it like, did you come to a place where you said, like, for me, I I made a commitment. Like I got hit with a you know, basically God jumped in my head and said, What are you willing to do for this? And I'm like, whoa, you know, and I'm like, Yeah, I'll do whatever it takes, you know. And then ultimately I made a commitment to help anybody I can, you know, for the rest of my life. And that's my, you know, my calling. And you know, that doesn't mean that's the only thing I do in life, but but when I see somebody that needs help, I have answers. I know how to find solutions, and and that's now my you know, a big part of my life. Did you come to a place like that or is it just sort of happening?
SPEAKER_01:Uh you know, it's coming full circle right now, um, with that whole helping others. I always I always like helping others like in helping educate within the hair, and like even on set, I like to help others um and just spreading information out. As for uh um um helping and discovering uh a recovery as a whole, um health information, like in behind the chair, I'm just indulging them with information. It's great, uh I love it. Um I I just have this intuition to um I have to do something and and change for myself or other people to help them. And and it's a it's a gnawing uh effect, like I'm I'm not complete unless I'm doing it. I love it. If that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh and but I'm super, super uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00:Uh because that's how you know you're doing the right thing, you know. You get you're in an uncomfortable place and you do it anyways.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it is it feels unna I mean it's feels natural, but unnatural at the same time. Um I'm I'm not a social media person, and and it it's a hard battle between like, oh, I need to be on social media, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, but I don't want to be on it. Right, uh but I realize uh you have to make yourself stand in front of it. But um as for helping others, discovering even the hardest scenarios of cancer or divorce or a loss of loved one, there are ways to go through it, and going through it alone is the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because I've been through it alone.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, except for cancer. I have not gone through cancer.
SPEAKER_00:You never will, because you won't uh be able to be on that carnivore diet anymore.
SPEAKER_01:I've been told that, yeah. Yeah, like uh, but any major trauma situation, you always feel like you're always alone. Yeah, but that it's really not true. Any spiritual practices that that that are out there, it's they teach you it's never you're never alone.
SPEAKER_00:Oh fellowship, community, and and connection.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's always that's always, always, always important. So wherever you're at, you know, whatever the the situation is, there is a community. That's the beautiful thing about social media now. Right. And and what you're doing, you're creating a space for people to seek help.
SPEAKER_00:The point of all of this is building a community, you know, that a listener can plop in and go through, you know, 300 episodes and find something that connects with them and listen to them and go, Oh, wow, look, there's somebody else that shares this thing with me. And you know, usually there's a way to reach out to that person or or find their way. I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's awesome. So, like the the the play I'm developing that I wrote, it it's it it's it's a it's a platform and a it's a play about a recovering meeting. Okay. And you you you follow a storyline of a female and a villain that happens in front of you, but it's a organization, a group of people that have life problems, and they have they they have a place where they seek refuge, and from addiction to a death to a divorce, to any other any elements uh problems, and they just have a safe place to come to and just be like-minded health. That that that's all it is. Okay, uh, and I just give it a place for that, and it's interactive, inner immersive type of play. So my audience members will be a part of the play. And so the goal is my audience members hopefully will plant a little seed for the future. So if they have a problem, they'll be like, Oh, I have a problem subconsciously, like, oh yeah, that play. Like, oh wait, da da da and da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, so um, that's the goal.
SPEAKER_00:So you're talking about January, maybe uh yes, yeah. So I start showing.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, I I'm in the middle um in submission of castings right now. Uh uh January 4th through the through the 10th is my I have two nights, but that's the rough week that I'm testing it. And after that, uh back to the drawing board to readjust. Right, right.
SPEAKER_00:Then after that, um maybe by next summer something will be uh somewhere to be seen, huh?
SPEAKER_01:Oh well, 100%. I have my one-year goal is gonna be there is a festival in Scotland. I'm I'm gonna be going to Scotland with it. So for this one year, I'm gonna be hitting some major cities throughout.
SPEAKER_00:So that's exciting. Well, I hope you uh film the thing as well.
SPEAKER_01:And I no, I yeah, I'm I'm gonna be shooting it as well uh to help get some funding so I can travel with it as well. So yeah, I'm a filmmaker. Of course I'm gonna film it.
SPEAKER_00:I would say, yeah, it seems like a natural uh oh yeah, yeah. Well, listen, Severn, I I I am excited about the doing, and I would love to help you promote this any way that I can. So feel free to stay in touch. And I will I can always, as you have a link to share, I can put that into your show notes. You know, the thing about this is once we publish it, it's out there. Yeah, and so we can make additions and and and you know, tweak the show notes to to reflect some upcoming. And also, if you've got some more to talk about, we can always come back and do another episode. Yeah, love to. Wonderful, wonderful. Well, listen. I appreciate you. I think I'm gonna break this into two episodes because people have a little short attention span, and uh we'll get more listeners doing it that way to listen to it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. You do you. It's all good, my friend.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, I just really want to thank you for uh sharing your story with us. And I I think um this is so aligned with what we're doing as a not only as a podcast, but with my nonprofit and the community we're building. So I want to welcome you to the family.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. I appreciate it. You your your movement is very powerful for other people that are seeking for help. So uh it's it's an honor to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00:Beautiful. And it do you have any sort of contact information if somebody wants to connect with you in some way?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I'm pretty simple to find uh severinlang.com or severinlang um on Instagram. Um Severn Lang, you can find me there. Yeah, perfect. I appreciate you, Ann. Is there anything? Uh yeah, so I'd love to connect definitely.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, if you just had a 20-second elevator pitch to share with our listeners, what would that look like?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so um so in recovery, we we have this this thing called sponsors. And my late one of my sponsors passed away. Uh, and I'm wanting to spread his word around. Uh Matthew Perry was my sponsor. He passed away not too long ago. And his nugget for myself to keep me aligned a lot when I'm in the my darkest period is uh two things. If you feel like you're gonna relapse or use um with one of your isms, go have a milkshake. If you're gonna feel after that one milkshake, if you feel like you're gonna use or drink, go have another milkshake. That's one yeah, one that solves a lot of problems, yeah. Yeah, right. But uh the biggest one was uh sobriety is easy. All you have to do is don't use or drink, okay. Your ism, your your addiction.
unknown:Right, right.
SPEAKER_01:Um, go to meetings, meaning community and be nice. I love it. But that last one is hard.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Be loving. That's the whole key to everything in life, right?
SPEAKER_01:You can be nice. It's easy to be nice to everyone, yeah. But be nice to yourself is the hardest one. I hear so be nice to yourself. And and after that, it's easy. Wonderful.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Severin, again, it's been an absolute uh treat to to share this with you. And uh for our listeners, this has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. And I want to thank you all for uh making this show possible, and we will see you next week.
