In this episode, Dr. Debi sits down with Nathan Crane, health researcher, healer, and founder of The Awakened Process, for a conversation on addiction, the nervous system, and what it actually takes to come back to love after betrayal. Nathan shares his own story, homelessness, addiction, and suicidal ideation as a teenager, and the moment a family in Montana took him in and loved him unconditionally for the first time in his life.
Together, Dr. Debi and Nathan explore why every addiction, from substances to toxic relationships to doom-scrolling, is really a protective coping mechanism rather than a moral failure, and why the question 'what is this trying to do for me?' is more useful than shame ever will be. They also break down the nervous system in plain terms, sympathetic versus parasympathetic, and why so many of us are living in a low-grade fight-or-flight state without realizing it.
This conversation goes deep into Nathan's four step framework for moving through pain, awareness, acknowledgment, acceptance, and appreciation, and closes with a reminder that healing was never about becoming someone new. It's about uncovering who you already were before the pain.
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Nathan's own story: homelessness, addiction, and suicidal ideation as a teenager, and the family in Belgrade, Montana who loved him unconditionally for the first time
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His spiritual teacher's reframe, every culprit has a victim inside, and why that's about compassion, not excusing behavior
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Why addiction isn't just drugs or alcohol, sugar, toxic relationships, arguing, and scrolling all count, and why Nathan calls them 'adaptive addictions'
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Nathan's four step framework for moving through pain: awareness, acknowledgment, acceptance, and appreciation, and the subtle difference between each one
