Blue Mind and Addiction Recovery

"The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it’s connection." — Johan Hari 

Fellow patron, colleague and friend David Bohl, author of Parallel Universes: The Story of Rebirth, has been connecting the dots between Blue Mind, addiction and adoption through his professional practice and personal experiences. I had the chance to spend time with him in Milwaukee on my recent trip to Wisconsin and look forward to doing so again. I appreciate his insights and know that our collaborations will serve the needs of others and help fix what is broken in people and nature.

In his latest entry he writes:

"Addiction leads to loss of health, loss of employment, housing; it fosters isolation, marginalization, it can lead to criminal activity. It is, of course, also the cause of many unnecessary deaths.

Living in today’s world in the Red Mind mindset of chronic stress is not conductive to recovery. And research has shown over and over that there’s direct link between stress and self-harm and suicide. In persons suffering from Substance Use Disorder, self-harm can take the form of ingesting drugs in order to achieve a false sense of calm or simply to 'get a break' from the world and its ongoing demands."

And in his book Parallel Universes he concludes:

"On the boat I chased nothing. I just went forward. What else is there in life but to go forward?

On the boat, I was in control of every moment. I immediately found the balance.

I could live in the world, I thought in those first moments back on the water. I was strong and healthy. I could feel my body work from the inside...it was freedom again...it was reality."

Read more from David here.

About David

David Bohl lives to empower others. And not in the way he sees fit, but in the way that allows each individual to live his or her best way. By walking a value-centered path, he leads by example. He tries to be the best husband, father, son, brother, friend, citizen, and businessperson he can be. His life goals are centered on contributing to the lives of others using powerful, positive techniques that are firmly rooted in the pragmatic and the real.

Already heavily entwined with alcohol throughout high school, he graduated college and immediately plunged into a materialistic lifestyle. After starting as a runner on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the work week’s adrenaline rush was as pleasurable as the weekend alcohol binges. By his thirties, he had everything he wanted–except freedom. After hitting bottom, he rebuilt…first himself, and then his life.

That process of reconstruction took him down a very different road. David earned a Masters of Addiction Studies degree and received Addiction Counseling licensing in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. He was also granted the certification of Master Addiction Counselor (MAC) by NAADAC (National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors). Today, he is an independent addiction consultant, where he engages and empowers others as they struggle with their own or a loved one’s substance use disorders and mental illnesses, and the issues particular to lifelong recovery. He hopes Parallel Universes will open new channels for discussions about how to assist the under-served populations of those with developmental interruptions – traumatized individuals, adoptees, orphans, fostered persons, relinquished individuals, alcoholics, addicts, and their families and colleagues.

Bohl is a graduate of the University of South Florida and Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies. David is a member of the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC), American Adoption Congress (AAC), and Concerned United Birthparents (CUB). Today, the author lives with his wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a current or former member of a number of national and regional sailing and yachting associations. Bohl’s volunteerism through the Salvation Army, in the recovery community, and through a variety of sailing and yachting clubs has touched individuals from many walks of life.