Recovery For The Revolution with Carolyn Collado

Sober Curious

My guest this week is Carolyn Collado – the healer and educator behind Recovery for the Revolution. Carolyn is on a mission to make recovery accessible to all—meaning, they are devoted to spreading the message that all people, including and especially people of color, disabled people, and trans, non-binary, and queer people, are worthy of the care, autonomy, love, good health, pleasure, and joy that are essential for addressing issues of substance abuse.

For Carolyn, recovery – meaning, a remembering and honoring of who we are underneath all of our traumas and numbing behaviors – is an essential part in enacting revolution. A message that could not feel more timely right now. No matter our identity, we’re all being asked to get hyper present and real about how we got to this place – and in this episode we discuss why this requires both sober thinking and deep, active listening. Thank you for showing up for this. In the episode we discuss:

-Their definition of both “recovery” and “revolution” - and why we can’t have one without the other.

-Incorporating the stories of our ancestors into our recovery today.

-Forgotten generational tools for healing and connection.

-What it means to “move at the pace of safety” in our personal and collective healing.

-Drinking keeping us compliant in systems of oppression.

-Using alcohol to let go of perfectionism - and then seeking to control their drinking.

-Binge drinking as a way to suppress their queerness - and seek sexual validation from white men.

-Their experiences in AA as a non-binary person of color.

-Embarking on a path of deeper spiritual work as part of a more holistic recovery.

-The opportunity for us in recovering all of our senses – including our sense of injustice.

-Carolyn and I also discuss the books Love & Rage and Radical Dharma.

Sign up for Carolyn's newsletter, check out the Intro to Decolonized Recovery webinar, and look for other updates for Recovery for the Revolution HERE. Follow on IG @recoveryfortherevolution. Support Carolyn's work at Patreon, and using Venmo @recovery-for-the-revolution, PayPal, and Cashapp at $recoverycoin.

Big thanks to Sapiens for partnering on this episode. Purchase their delicious 0.0% alcohol wine at Sapiensbeverage.com and get 10% off your order with the code SOBERCURIOUS.