Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitchell O’Brien
Hi Mitchell, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born and raised in the city I love, live, and work in. Traverse City Michigan. My journey through mental health struggles that led to addiction started, grew, and began to heal in this beautiful community. Starting with childhood trauma and the loss of loved ones, I turned to alcohol as an adult for the self-medicating escape from my depression and anxiety it afford in the short term. This turned in struggling with alcoholism for 16 years, and being the sole parent of my son, I was able to be guided by local programs to not only overcome my addiction but the physical and mental health struggles I collected along the way. After almost 2 years of sustained recovery from substance use disorder, I met my peers here at 217 Recovery where I’ve been able to grow and use my lived experience to reach hundreds of people. Helping them through emotional, physical, and spiritual struggles similar to those I once suffered from. I now have over 3 1/2 years of sustained sobriety and live a life that I love.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road. My journey has consisted of the loss of close loved ones, abusive relationships, life-threatening health issues, struggling with employment, being a single father and the legal system, and rebuilding mine and my son’s life from the ground up. We would have faced being unhoused as well without the loving support system we had along the way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I now work as a certified peer recovery coach as well as the volunteer director of our local recovery community organization that specializes in media production and providing people in Northern Michigan safe rides to substance use disorder services, while doing free notary public work for the local recovery community. I also author and co-author multiple podcasts with topics ranging from spirituality to living life in recovery.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I have a passion for volunteering my time to create relationships with people in the local unhoused community. The local recovery and unhoused communities are deeply intertwined and I take my lived experience to both as often as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.217recovery.com/mitchell
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redaction222/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mobri517
- Twitter: https://x.com/mitchell217prc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RedactedRecoverYourMind
- Other: https://rss.com/podcasts/redacted-recover-your-mind/
