For siblings and families navigating a loved one's addiction or substance use. For Love of Recovery features real sibling stories, mental health professionals, and recovery advocates helping you support a loved one without losing yourself.
Host Dominique Dajer shares her own journey supporting her brother through addiction and recovery, and the lessons learned about boundaries, letting go, and what it really means to love someone through it.
Topics: sibling addiction, family roles, enabling, harm reduction, boundaries, recovery, parentification, and generational trauma.
New episode monthly
"There's no room for me" The resentment, guilt, & cost of being the responsible sibling in addiction (with Amber Hollingsworth)
When someone you love is struggling with addiction, it may feel like there's often not much room left for you.
In this episode, Amber Hollingsworth, founder of the YouTube channel Put The Shovel Down, opens up about growing up as the responsible sibling in an addicted family. She shares what it was like to pay her older half-sister's bills for years, why she dreaded seeing an unknown number on her phone, and the moment she finally said no.
We talk about:
"Guilt-sment": feeling guilty and resentful at the same time
Why siblings are often the last to forgive, and what forgiveness really means
Amber's simple test for helping vs. enabling
Why boundaries are rules for yourself, not ultimatums for your sibling
What parents can do for the child who seems fine
If you've ever felt like you had to hold it all together while your brother or sister was in crisis, this one is for you.
📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey (https://www.forloveofrecovery.com/e-book)
🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1001711494318102)
📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/forloveofrecovery/)and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@forloveofrecovery)
Guest speaker: Amber Hollingsworth (https://www.familyrecoveryacademy.online/Amber)
Watch Amber's channel: Put the Shovel Down (https://youtube.com/@puttheshoveldown?si=tSBNH5HXeYXOCQ4j)
1 Sept 2026
"I was convinced I could save my brother": Loving through recovery and relapse (with Azlyn Belisle)
At 16, when most teens are trying to figure out high school, friendships, and who they want to become, Azlyn became convinced it was her job to help save her brother who was struggling with addiction.
She covered for him. Kept tabs on him. Tried to protect him from consequences. Tried to protect her family. And when he went to rehab, she struggled with the idea of letting go of the role she had spent years playing.
But recovery wasn’t linear. Neither was relapse. And neither was Azlyn’s own journey of figuring out how to love her brother without losing herself in the process.
In this episode, Azlyn joins me to talk candidly about growing up alongside her brother’s addiction, the guilt and responsibility she carried as a young sibling, what relapse looked like from her side, and what she’s still learning about boundaries, self-care, and showing up for herself.
Because Azlyn doesn’t have it all figured out—and that’s kind of the point. Sometimes, healing means learning that you can love someone deeply without being responsible for what happens to them.
📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey (https://www.forloveofrecovery.com/e-book)
🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1001711494318102)
📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/forloveofrecovery/)and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@forloveofrecovery)
🎙Guest speaker: Azlyn Belisle, younger sibling to a brother in recovery
1 Aug 2026
Their addiction treatment isn't working—now what? A family’s guide to harm reduction (with Dr. Sheila Vakharia)
Drug tests. Revolving doors of rehabs. On and off the street. Judges, and parole officers — to families waiting and hoping for something to change. When a loved one’s treatment is dictated by external forces, why doesn’t it “work”, and what does it look like when it does?
Dr. Sheila Vakharia — researcher, social worker, and author of The Harm Reduction Gap — has worked inside outpatient treatment centers, drug courts, and needle exchange programs, giving her a rare, ground-level view of what actually helps people survive addiction, what gets in the way, and the power families have.
Together we dig into:
Why addiction is the only health condition where people are expected to be "cured" before treatment even starts
The stigma around methadone and buprenorphine — and why they're not "trading one drug for another"
How the criminal legal system can be both a lifeline and a barrier to real care
Why courts, insurance gaps, and fear-based messaging keep failing families
What families can actually do — from local pharmacy advocacy to sharing your story with lawmakers and media
📘Download our FREE, sibling e-book: 6 actions to help navigate a sibling’s substance use journey (https://www.forloveofrecovery.com/e-book)
🤝Join our FREE and PRIVATE sibling-focused community: Siblings For Love of Recovery (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1001711494318102)
📲Connect with FLOR: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/forloveofrecovery/)and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@forloveofrecovery)
🎙Guest speaker: Dr. Sheila Vakharia (https://www.sheilavakharia.com/), author and Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance (https://drugpolicy.org/)
Episode resources:
Sheila’s book: The Harm Reduction Gap: Helping Individuals Left Behind by Conventional Drug Prevention and Abstinence-Only Treatment (https://www.routledge.com/The-Harm-Reduction-Gap-Helping-Individuals-Left-Behind-by-Conventional-Drug-Prevention-and-Abstinence-only-Addiction-Treatment/Vakharia/p/book/9781032294735)
Read how you can advocate for your loved one: One parent’s story (https://drugpolicy.org/resource/he-lost-his-son-to-fentanyl-now-he-fights-to-keep-others-alive/)
Who has been a guest on For Love of Recovery
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Pam Lanhart
Kathleen Cochran
Jane Macky
Justin Dajer
Joseph Green
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
23,593
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
6 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 54 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
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