Fit2BTide S08.E01: Collegiate Recovery and Intervention Services

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Happy Sunday, y'. All. You are listening to Fit to be tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7, the capstone. And I am so proud of myself for not botching that because we were literally just talking about the fact that this is our first episode of the semester and things are a little bit wonky in the beginning. Don't you think, Nika? [00:00:27] Speaker C: Yeah, we have to ease back into it. [00:00:29] Speaker B: We really do. Yes. [00:00:30] Speaker C: How was your summer? [00:00:32] Speaker B: It was good, you know, and I feel like this whole idea that I had about summer being this relaxing, jovial time with my kids, it's just different when you work 12 months out of the year. So. Yeah, just something about working and it being summertime, it just. It's a little different, you know, but thank goodness for all those programs out there where your kids can be going to camps or, like, summer care or whatever else. Cause, yeah, mama's gotta pay some bills. [00:01:03] Speaker D: I have to say. [00:01:04] Speaker B: But how about y'? All? Did y' all have a good summer? Any traveling at all? [00:01:08] Speaker C: We did our family vacation at the beach outdoors. Orange Beach. That was good. But just really, you know, made a little couple of trips, like, to the Fayette water park, of course, and home to see my family in North Alabama. But just really kind of just chilled out and did some yard work. And we had a yard sale and the girls had a lemonade stand and. And made $64. [00:01:34] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay. How much did they charge per a dollar? Okay. [00:01:38] Speaker C: But I mean, we were, you know, it was like 12 ounce cups. I mean, we were. We were not being, you know, you. [00:01:44] Speaker B: Weren'T being stingy on the portions, but. [00:01:46] Speaker C: It was really hot that day. And it just was. It was just the perfect, you know, sales pitch. You had people shopping that were hot, and the girls were like, we just happened. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Hey, little entrepreneurs. [00:02:00] Speaker C: Some lemonade over here. [00:02:01] Speaker B: Yes. Now, did you sell as much stuff in your yard sale as hope to? [00:02:05] Speaker C: Yes, I did, actually. I was very surprised and very pleased. I want to have another one. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:02:10] Speaker C: Well, I'm now like, I'm. The bug has bitten me and I'm like, what can I sell? I'm, like, looking for things that I probably don't need to sell just so I can. [00:02:19] Speaker B: No, I sell. I'll have to add to your pile because I don't know if you've seen those Facebook or Instagram reels or whatever social media of choice that you watch videos where it's like a mom who is going into her child's bedroom and they have a garbage bag. And it's like this coffee is tasting like everything's about to be thrown away today. Yeah, that happens to me pretty often when the kids aren't home. And so maybe I try to sell some stuff at a garbage, I mean, at a, at a garbage sale. At a garbage sale. At a yard sale. For sure. [00:02:53] Speaker C: Yeah. Bring it on over, you know. [00:02:55] Speaker B: Okay. So I am going to do a little bit of a pivot. It's related to summer activities and trips. Can I put you on the spot and ask, how many times in total have you been to Disney in your life? [00:03:07] Speaker C: In my life, I went once when I was four, once when I was nine, I think three times in my late 20s when I tried out. [00:03:18] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:19] Speaker C: And then once when the girls were little. [00:03:22] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:23] Speaker C: So not very much. [00:03:24] Speaker B: Okay. I don't know why I, I, I'm going to have to figure that out. Mostly because, you know, lovely summertime share situations where, you know, people kind of get sucked into those presentations. My par. When I was very young, they got sucked into some timeshare presentation when we were in Las Vegas. My dad, basically, he's always down for a good deal and he really wanted us to get some free tickets to this Star Trek some kind of ride that was there. And so it was like, hey, we'll give you free tickets to this if you sit down for this presentation. That ended up being the most expensive thing we've ever done because then they got sucked into a timeshare situation and then for whatever reason, decided that home base of their timeshare should be Orlando. And so it did force us into going to Disney a lot because it's like, well, we're paying for this. So that's, that's how that happened. But I do like Disney. We with having our boys, we are entertaining the idea of taking them to Universal at some point for the new Super Mario World that has opened up. So. [00:04:35] Speaker C: But do y' all still have the timeshare? [00:04:37] Speaker D: No. [00:04:38] Speaker B: Yeah, so we somehow we were able to get out of that at some point, which is shocking, you know, and they make it feel like it's an act of Congress to do that. Like you've got to hire an attorney to do it or something. [00:04:48] Speaker D: I don't know. [00:04:49] Speaker B: I'm just talking out of my butt. [00:04:51] Speaker C: No, that's true. Yeah, it's pretty hard to get out of a timeshare. [00:04:53] Speaker B: Well, thankfully, listeners, if you are listening right now, I am so sorry. I promise that today's episode is not about timeshares or vacations or reminiscing about summertime. Although it was very nice for us to talk about this, but we are kicking our first show of the semester strong. We have a fabulous set of guests coming to you from on campus today at the University of Alabama. But, y', all, we gotta take a quick break. Go blow your nose if you've got allergies, go grab a sip of water. Use the restroom. Do what you gotta do. But we will catch you after the break on Fit to Be Tied. [00:05:33] Speaker A: Wvuafm, Tuscaloosa. [00:05:42] Speaker C: Welcome back, listeners. You are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Nika. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Yes, we. Again, you know, if you are just now joining us, that's probably better. If you go back to our opening segment, we kind of, you know, as we always do, we kind of went on a wild goose chase. I typically am the open door for us doing that, talking about the summer. We talked about Disney timeshares. But that is not what we're talking about today. We are actually so proud and excited to have two fabulous guests with us today. From Collegiate Recovery and Intervention services, we have Mr. Alex Live Oak, who's the assistant director of the Collegiate Recovery Community, as well as Natalie Holland, program coordinator for the center. And so, y', all, thank you for coming. [00:06:28] Speaker A: Thanks for having us. [00:06:28] Speaker D: Thank you. Thank you for having us. [00:06:30] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. So, Alex, you have been on the show before. Natalie, this'll be your first rodeo with us. Hopefully you feel like it's a good ride today. But typically what Nika and I like to do in this first segment is it's always all about our guests. You know, we kind of want the 41 1. So, Alex, Natalie, I'll let y' all duke it out for who answers first, but tell us hometown academic and professional background and a little bit about your current role at the crc. [00:06:59] Speaker D: I'm the newest, so I'll go ahead and go. Community coordinator. I just started with the CRC in June. [00:07:05] Speaker B: Yay. [00:07:06] Speaker D: My background is starts with the University of Alabama, so I did go to school here. I am an alumni. I did. I am from Tuscaloosa, too. So roll tide rol long time. I lived in Nashville for a few years when my kids were small. Right. When my husband and I got married and Covid brought us back. But my professional background is very diverse, so I did work in treatments for a little bit. I've got a background in marketing. Fundraising. Fundraising and events. My longest stint and most recent is stay at home mom. [00:07:38] Speaker B: Very nice. [00:07:40] Speaker D: So I was fortunate to do that for about Six years. And I feel like it has equipped me more than any job that I have ever had. So how to delegate, how to do all the things, how to be efficient in working. So I did that for six years. And then right before I came on with the CRC for about two years, I was with a local non profit called Ready and I did prevention, addiction prevention, education. So I got the opportunity to be in the classroom and to do those lessons with mostly middle and high school students. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Okay, good deal. Now, Alex. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I'm the same. I'm from Tuscaloosa. Grew up going to all the football games and hanging out around the university a lot. And then I went to school here, got my undergrad in psychology, my master's in marriage and family therapy, and also in recovery. Found my way to recovery during all that. And then I worked in Warrior for in a patient treatment facility called Bradford for about two years. And then the Tide called and I was like, yeah, let's go. Let's go back. [00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. [00:08:49] Speaker C: I love it. And Alex, you come speak to my class a lot. So I'm excited to see you today as a guest on the show. But then also I see you in the academic setting, and then I also know that you are, you know, out and about around campus. And so for those who don't know who you are or have never listened to the show before, can you tell us a little bit about what the mission and the purpose of the CRC is? [00:09:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So the CRC is a place where people in recovery can come hang out. You know, we have about 25 students right now, four PhDs, four master's students, and the rest are undergrad. It's a really diverse community, and it's just all about staying in recovery and having fun and graduating college. That's basically it. Yeah. [00:09:40] Speaker C: All right, so what are the requirements, other than being a student in recovery, for membership? [00:09:48] Speaker A: That's really it. Even if you're not in recovery, you can come to us. If you're interested in being in recovery, we'll take you day one. Now, we also give, like, scholarship money and priority registration and access to our space. 24. 7 access. Even when the university is closed, you can hang out there. To get the 24. 7 access and scholarship money, you have to have a year of continuous recovery. [00:10:16] Speaker C: Continuous recovery? [00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah. When you were talking about those membership requirements and you mentioned someone would be eligible on day one, has that always been the case or did that pivot at some point in time? I'm trying to remember if Historically, there was some type of minimum requirement for sobriety before being in the program. [00:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So when I first came to the CRC as a student, it was, you had to have a year of sobriety to even be there. And we just have the resources to help way earlier than that. And the number one thing that you need if you want to be in recovery is the community. Therapy is great. Doing the steps are great. All that stuff's great. But what you really need is people that are going through the same things and have the same goals and. Yeah, that's the most important thing. So we want to give them that. [00:11:11] Speaker D: Can I interrupt really quickly? [00:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah, go for it. [00:11:13] Speaker D: We keep saying recovery. Like, everybody knows what that means. And when we were at a tabling event at Get On Board Day the other night, we had some pretty interesting responses to just the word recovery and what it actually means, with kind of the funniest one being somebody thought that we helped animals in recovery, kind of like a rehabilitation. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Oh. Like rescue. [00:11:36] Speaker D: So in our world, we know, oh, I'm in recovery. Oh, he's in recovery. That seems so common. But we're talking about recovery from substance use, addiction, eating disorders, any kind of addictive behaviors. And in that recovery, we provide the community, like Alex was saying, to be around other people that are going through those same things. [00:11:56] Speaker C: I love that you point that out, because I think our default mode is to think substance use, alcohol. But I mean, gambling. [00:12:06] Speaker A: Yep. [00:12:07] Speaker C: I mean, like you said, eat. Disordered eating. What's some other maybe addictions that our students may not think that if they were experiencing them, they may not think, well, I would be. You know, I would have a place there. But they would like, yeah. [00:12:25] Speaker A: I mean, gambling is the big one. [00:12:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:26] Speaker A: Right. That's going around right now. [00:12:28] Speaker C: Shopping addiction. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Shopping, yeah, sure. I mean, that can be pretty detrimental. Video games. Video games is a big one. Sucked into that, and it interrupts their lives. [00:12:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like it's anything that could disrupt that activities of daily living and quality of life there, for sure. And you know, Natalie, as you were mentioning, you guys tabling at the. At Get On Board Day on behalf of the crc. So it sounds like. Did y' all just point blank ask students, like, do you know what recovery is? Like, how did some of those conversations start? I'm a little curious now. [00:13:04] Speaker D: So being new, I started in June. We're September 1st. So I've really only had a small time with the students since we just started school. Right. And. But even since first, when I first started mid June, anytime I meet anybody, whether it's a student or in the community, and I tell them what I'm doing. I'll ask them, do you know, have you heard the crc? Do you know what recovery is? I'm just trying to gauge an understanding of where are we? Where, where are we landing? Like in the community, on campus and the broader community. Do people know what recovery is? Have they heard of the crc? We don't ever want somebody not to come to us that needs help because they don't know about us. That should never be the reason why somebody doesn't come to our community. [00:13:48] Speaker B: Right, right. No, you bring up such a good point. And you know, and I'm also curious too. For you being reimmersed into higher ed culture, how does it feel to be amongst all of these young people again? [00:14:02] Speaker D: It's surreal. Going to school here, I'll walk, you know, down the quad. And I have a flashback and I'm like, that's been 20 years. So I, I'm kind of coming in as like more of a, like a motherly role too. Like I. With three kids, I look at the students and I just kind of picture myself as like an 18 year old college student and what my experience was. And also I can see, you know, in a few years as my kids are older and they're here. So what are their expectations? What does it feel like to be a new freshman on campus? It can be overwhelming. [00:14:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, for sure. [00:14:35] Speaker C: You very much can. So of all the things that you offer at the crc, what have you been told or what do you feel like the students appreciate the most? [00:14:47] Speaker D: I asked some of the students this question this morning. As I had my questions with me. I was curious to see what their answer would be. And it was pretty simple. People in the community, you can do fun things and you can, you can have a list of all the things that are wonderful about the program, but if you're not doing it with other people and enjoying it with them, then what's the point? [00:15:08] Speaker C: That social support. [00:15:09] Speaker D: Yes, the social support. Being around people that are going through the same thing that you are. [00:15:14] Speaker B: Well, I like, I feel like this is a really great start to the show. You know, I think that we've brought up some great points. Just clarifying what is recovery? Also mentioning Yalls background. It's great to know that y' all are both Tuscaloosa locals. And then mama called and so, you know, here we all are. And I want us to continue this conversation. But y', all, we gotta take a Break before we start gabbing some more. So you guys are gonna catch us on the flip side. You are listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7, the Capstone. [00:15:49] Speaker A: WVUAFM, Tuscaloosa. [00:15:58] Speaker C: Welcome back, listeners. You are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Neeka. And today we are joined by our guest, Alex and Natalie of the collegiate recovery community at the University of Alabama. [00:16:09] Speaker B: That's right. And, you know, we kicked it off with some really great conversation about the collegiate recovery community as a whole in terms of the mission and purpose. And I feel like we did touch on this a bit in the last segment, but I want to kind of talk more about this head on. In terms of misconceptions about addiction and substance misuse from the work that the two of you all do, what do you feel like are the biggest misconceptions within the UA community or even amongst family members of your students in the crc? [00:16:45] Speaker D: I think overall misconception about addiction is when somebody mentions addiction or drug addict, the first image that pops into their head is that homeless person under a bridge. And we try to think that we don't do that, but it's so hard to not just have that stereotype, especially when people are not familiar with recovery. So we. We try to make sure that we want people to know that lots of people are in recovery. 22 million people in the United States of America are in recovery. And they come from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, all different levels of education. The faces of recovery are so vast and so different. And it's not that homeless person under a bridge that some people still stereotype. [00:17:30] Speaker B: Yes. No. Well, and, you know, it's like, while I love the different public health ad of the 90s, you can't help but think like, gosh, they seared a core memory in us about, you know, when you think about someone who is a quote, unquote addict or in recovery, like you said, there's that very specific imagery that while, like, clearly the campaign was impactful because I remember a lot of that imagery. It's written a picture or drawn a picture that is just not helpful or accurate, like you said. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. I'd definitely echo that and the other misconception that they made a choice to be addicted to something because the vast majority of people drink at some point in their lives. Vast majority of high school seniors drink, but just a percentage of those wind up. And you can't know before. It'd be a lot easier if you could. So I think that's a big misconception and misconception about recovery that Natalie was talking about is that it's not fun, that you're not going to have fun in recovery. I can guarantee you I have the most fun group of students on campus. I don't even think it's that close. So they take school very seriously and their recovery very seriously, and then not much else. You know, they're pretty much just cutting up, watching sports, making fun of each other, you know, just having a great time. So I think that's the biggest misconception of recovery, for sure. [00:19:03] Speaker C: I have one to add just from my students in my class. They the saying, and I'm sure you guys have heard it is, it is not an addiction until after graduation. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, sure. Young people can't be. Right. Yeah, absolutely. [00:19:18] Speaker C: And that kind of echoes what you were saying. You don't know until you do. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:25] Speaker C: And it's kind of like cancer. You can do all the right things and still get cancer. You can be 2 years old or 20 or 82. There's really kind of no rhyme or reason. And I feel like addiction is the same way. [00:19:40] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, it just. Yeah, it just happens. [00:19:43] Speaker C: Just happens. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah. There's no way to tell. [00:19:45] Speaker C: So it's not after graduation. [00:19:47] Speaker A: It is not. It just looks a lot different. Right. Like, you're probably not living under the bridge yet when you're 19. You're probably just not going to class or your grades aren't as good as you expect them to be, or your relationships aren't looking good. It's just like interrupting your daily life. [00:20:08] Speaker C: Right? [00:20:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you feel like a lot of the work that you do, especially for students that are getting newly onboarded into the community, is serving as that liaison to the parents when they're really just trying to conceptualize this for the first time and they're coming to acceptance that, you know, that their child is in recovery or that they need that help. Alex, do you feel like over the time that you've been in your role, a lot of it has been some of those hardcore conversations with the families? [00:20:38] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, for sure. Because we, you know, we get up in front of the families at Bama boundaries every year, and we never get any questions because not my kid. [00:20:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:20:48] Speaker A: It's not going to be my kid. And I try and tell them that there are far worse things that could happen, like this has a solution and we can get this done. It's not that big of a deal. So. Yeah. But, yeah, a lot of hard conversations, and I've had a lot of very supportive family members as well. And the supportive ones look like, okay, whatever he needs, you know, how can I be helpful? And the non supportive ones just try and fight you and oh, well, he can just drink. Right. Or he can just drink on the weekends or, you know, maybe he can just smoke weed. Right. Like those are the non helpful ones. [00:21:28] Speaker C: Let's just put one in place the other. [00:21:30] Speaker D: Sometimes, though, it boils down to they're just not educated on addiction. [00:21:35] Speaker B: Sure. [00:21:36] Speaker D: And like when we were talking about misconceptions, a big one that I see is treatment as a cure. Like, okay, they're going to go to rehab, they get back, and then they're going to be better. So when a relapse happens, it's like, well, treatment didn't work. [00:21:49] Speaker B: Right. Right. [00:21:50] Speaker D: And it just doesn't look like any other disease. [00:21:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:54] Speaker C: What is that statistic that the average person who tries to quit a behavior that they no longer want in their life will lapse around seven times before it sticks. So if you give up on the first, second, third, all the way up to the seventh time, you know, that's human nature to take one step forward and three steps back. But like you said, a lot of people think, well, you know, we can just treat this and bada boom, bada bang, it's fixed. And that's not the nature of the beast. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Right, Right. I think, you know, as a therapist, I think any therapist would tell you that the hardest thing for people to change is behavior because they're just so ingrained in what they do. [00:22:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:35] Speaker B: I know that when I've been on the clinical side and serving on a treatment team for eating disorders, sometimes the visual that I'll often share with both the client and their family is showing them like a labyrinth where, you know, you're going towards the center. And sometimes it can look visually like somebody is like back at the beginning of the maze, but it's. They're actually still on that pathway to that ultimate recovery. So whenever we do think about those lapses or relapses, a learning opportunity for us too. So I appreciate y' all sharing that. And you know, just on the topic of family and friends, how can they be the most helpful and supportive in getting a loved one to the help that they need? [00:23:19] Speaker A: Call us. Yeah. Talk to any professional, really. But yeah, just get a professional involved so you can get an educated view on it and an objective one as well. Because I know I have two boys and I don't want to think that there's anything wrong with them or that they're different or whatever. The thing is. And so just. Yeah, just getting professional involved is probably the best way to get involved. [00:23:47] Speaker D: And for themselves, too, for the families that are involved, because they go through so much. So it's not just impacting the person that is going through the addiction, the substance use, the eating disorder. We have meetings for families, too, at our office. [00:24:05] Speaker B: So just out of curiosity, I know that again, during my time when I was serving as a dietitian at the student health center and helping with individuals with disordered eating. Eating disorders. I know that myself and colleagues at the counseling center, we have often had to tell students and other individuals that we couldn't necessarily cold call someone out of the blue. Like, so if somebody was like, hey, I'm really concerned about my sorority system. You need to call her and tell her she needs to make an appointment with you. And so I think sometimes that would be the same scenario with the counseling center. Have you ever had people reach out and say, hey, my friend has a problem. You need to call them and tell them to come to y' all pretty often. [00:24:43] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of mamas, too, for sure. Yeah, a lot of mamas. And it's like, we can't. That's not how this works. But I usually call anyway. [00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. No, I told. Yeah. Because it gives you peace of mind. It's like, okay, well, I have to tell somebody for sure. And I know we've got to go on a quick break. Break in a bit, but, Nika, anything else you want to ask our guests before we shoot to a break? [00:25:07] Speaker C: No, I mean, I'm excited about the next segment, so I'm going to tell the listeners to stick around and. And, you know, go get something to drink, but don't go to a timeshare meeting. Yeah, don't. [00:25:18] Speaker B: Don't do that. Don't do that. But stick around with us because we have plenty to talk about. We're going to be talking about some initiatives and programs that the CRC is doing. We might talk a little bit about something called Recovery month that is happening right now, but y' all stick to it. You are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena on 90.7, the capstone. [00:25:39] Speaker A: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa. [00:25:49] Speaker C: Happy Sunday. You are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Neeka. [00:25:53] Speaker B: That is right. And if you are just now joining us, we have had the fabulous Alex Live Oak and Natalie Holland from our collegiate recovery and intervention services here on campus. We've been talking about all things recovery, you know, how can we help a loved one that we're concerned about? We've been talking about misconceptions, and before the break, you know, we were looking at some of the questions that we had for them today. And I'm actually curious what kinds of initiatives and programs are done at the CRC to plug into the community. So what are some different things that you guys do with the students? Do you typically do outreach together? What. What do y' all do together? [00:26:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I think this is one of the things that surprises a lot of people when I tell them what all we do, because they're like, I have no idea that you did all that. So I guess the big thing we got coming up is this Saturday. We got our first tailgate on the quad or right across from the quad, right in front of the little hall. If you're looking for us, look for the yellow balloons and you'll find us. So we do the tailgate. We do. We have recovery night on Thursday nights at Lloyd 131 at 7pm It's a speaker meeting. So you don't have to, like, share or tell people that you win or be there or whatever. You can just sit there and listen to somebody share their experience, strength, and hope, their story through their addiction and recovery. We have seminar twice a week. We do family dinners. Like we go to Hokkaido. Where did we go last month? I don't remember. Oh, wait, we just got back. [00:27:27] Speaker D: We went to Dave and Buster's on Sunday. [00:27:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I saw Dave Anderson activity on social. [00:27:33] Speaker A: Yeah, so we. We do a lot of events like that. We go paintballing. We do activate Birmingham. We. I think we're doing, like, a pottery thing at some point in October. I don't know, we try and mix it up. [00:27:47] Speaker D: We have a camping trip coming up where we go camping with other CRCs. So that's coming up the end of September. So exciting. We went to New Orleans to a conference in June. That was my second week on the job. I got to go. Ah, yes. Free trip. [00:28:03] Speaker A: Y. [00:28:04] Speaker B: Well, okay, So I want to rewind just a second to go back to the tailgate. So for our listeners who this may be their first time hearing about this, you know, Nika and I, we're. We're aware of the fabulous tailgates that y' all have, but tell our listeners, because while my hope would be that they make the assumption that this is a sober tailgate, can you entail even more about that? And also, if community members who want to stop by if they could stop by too, or if it's just specific to those that are part of the community. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, it's open for everybody. Yeah. As long it is a sober tailgate. But we bring, you know, we got the big screen. We just hooked it up today to make sure it still works. And so we're going to watch all the games and we got cornhole and can jam and Full moons catering, this one. So we'll have a ton of barbecue out there and it's a really good time. So. [00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah, very nice. Now, are some of these tailgates, are they often sponsored by different community agencies or partners or how are those typically funded? I didn't know if it's programming funds or for any of our listeners who may be interested in being like, gosh, like, how can we get involved with just financially supporting this community? What could that look like? [00:29:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the main thing that our sponsors want to sponsor is our tailgate. Right? [00:29:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker A: And so, yeah, yeah, this upcoming one this Saturday is Bradford Warrior is sponsoring this one. So, yeah, if you want to get involved in that, just shoot us an email or give us a call and we'd love to talk to you about it for sure. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:43] Speaker C: Very nice. Love it. So, Sheena, you mentioned before our last break about recovery month. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yes. I just know that it happens during the month of September. So it's like we would be remiss if we didn't ask y' all about it. Who wants to give us the 411 on recovery month? [00:30:04] Speaker D: All right, I'll go. So recovery month in general, we are trying to raise awareness that prevention, treatment and recovery services are available, just lower the stigma of what it looks like. And I love this with our students when we talk about recovery, when they say I'm in recovery, they're proud of that. They have overcome something and they are. They're proud. So we want people to have that sense of pride if they're in recovery or if they need to ask for help. That's ok. That's good. We're here for that. Now, when it comes to an initiative that we're doing, we do have a surprise. So I wanted to share, but I had to kind of. I've got to keep my mouth shut because we don't want to give anything away. But I will say when we're talking about our tailgates, which we do have coming up, the yellow balloons, if you will notice that our tailgate, we've got the yellow balloons and that is kind of tied into some of Our other initiatives, it symbolizes substance free, be a substance free, safe space. And I'll give you a little history on that too. So it started with Grateful Dead concerts. Okay, so wait, I don't know what year. Way back when, way back in old days, the 1900s, when they would have Grateful Dead concerts and some festivals and different other shows. The yellow balloon was a safe space. Safe substance free space where people could come that were in recovery, that were sober and they would have like a meeting in the middle of it show. So that's my little tidbit on the yellow balloons and that's why we use them on our. [00:31:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And for recovery month, we've got some really cool merchandise at the shirt shop that has to do with the yellow balloons. And it's embroideries that you can get like yellow balloons are hooked onto Roll Tide or Bama or just anything really. And 20% of what is sold at the shirt shop will be donated to us. So it's a really nice shirt. It's a really cool shirt. And 20% of the proceeds come to us. So it's a good fundraising thing too. [00:32:18] Speaker B: Hey, I'm all about some partnerships. [00:32:20] Speaker D: You can do that in person or on their website. If you go to their website and you find a piece of merchandise that you want, you can go to add a logo and it'll drop down and it'll say like Alabama alumni crc. Click on that and has all the options that they have designed for us that are like you said, yellow balloon, Roll Tide. It's pretty cool and we're very excited about it. [00:32:40] Speaker A: And it's kind of like an in the know thing too. Right? Like either you know that it's cool or you don't know what it is. So. [00:32:46] Speaker B: Right. So yeah, we're going to be some of the few, including like our listeners that when they see that option, if they happen to be shopping on the website, they'll know what that stands for, why that's there, and also that it's for a limited time. So good to know. [00:33:00] Speaker C: Very good to know. [00:33:01] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. And so, you know, as a help, health and well being show, you know, we, we often talk about wanting to set a good to be good examples for our students. And so I don't know how y' all felt when you first saw the. The outline for today's show where I was like, okay, so how do you model self care for your students and staff? Because I feel like that's always a catch 22 question. Because I feel like I should Be the model for it. But I. But I also feel like I'm constantly in emergency mode. I don't. I don't know if y' all feel that way too, but in an ideal scenario, how do you typically model self care to your own families and to the students at the CRC or the students in your classroom? Na. Because we're gonna make this a roundtable discussion. [00:33:46] Speaker C: Okay, so let's start with our guests. Yeah, about that. Do you send me Deflect. [00:33:50] Speaker D: There you go. I like this question. So the opposite of do as I. What is it? Hold on, let me get it right. Do as I say, not as I do do. A lot of us heard that growing up. Do as I do. So we're modeling that for our kids and for our students. [00:34:05] Speaker C: Right. [00:34:06] Speaker D: How do we balance work and family? Work and rest? We want to work from rest, not. Hold on. I knew I was going to get that wrong. Rest is important, right? Yes. We want to work from rest, not rest to work. Is that it? [00:34:24] Speaker C: Can't pour from an empty cup. [00:34:27] Speaker D: Thank you for clearing that up for me. I had it in my head. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Live. [00:34:30] Speaker C: Live to eat. You know that one? Yeah, me too. I know what you mean. [00:34:35] Speaker D: Asking for help if we need help using our community. [00:34:39] Speaker C: Don't burn yourself out. [00:34:40] Speaker D: Right? [00:34:41] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I feel you there, Alex. How about for you? [00:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I would echo that for sure. I get teased because, like, when I do the tailgate Saturday, that'll be all day. And so I'll take Monday off and be with my family, and my students tease me about that, and I tell them, I'm like, hey, man, this is just work. [00:34:59] Speaker C: Healthy boundaries. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Yeah. That is phenomenal. That's a phenomenal example right there, honestly. [00:35:04] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think. I don't want to speak for you guys, but I think I can speak for people who are in, you know, health and wellness. We don't ever want to come across as being perfect or thinking we're perfect, because then people get, you know, scared to be themselves around us. I know for you, Sheena, being a dietitian and people are always scared that you're judging what they're eating on their plate when you're not. You know, I used to be a personal trainer, and people thought I was judging the size of their deltoids. I wasn't. You know, I think one of the biggest things is to always be transparent and say, you know, we're human. We're going to go through seasons where we don't strike a balance. It's going to be like, you Said it's going to be a hot mess. Yes. But the trying, the always going back to that. I'm going to try. I've got to realign. I've got to realign my priorities. I've got to rest. I've got to take that Monday off. I've got to do whatever. I think that to me is the biggest way I can model to my students and my family is that yes, I'm going to struggle, but I'm going to always try to have a laser focus back on to what can I do to maintain health and control over this situation. [00:36:14] Speaker B: Yes. I think I would like to attribute my tendency to overshare based on the motivation to want people to know, like, hey, I struggle too. You know, be transparent. Yeah, I try to be transparent. Now, I will say as a geriatric millennial with a team of people from other generations, we have some staff now that are Gen Z and they have been so good for me in terms of helping me create boundaries because they're not going to answer a text for me after five o'. Clock. They're not. And so they're the fact that they're like, hey, we don't want you sending emails after five. Not because we don't want to respond to them, but we also don't want you working either. And so they've made that clear. At first I was like, you dare ignore an email from me? What? And so, and then they'll call me out when I don't pre schedule emails and so they'll say like, why were you sending an email at 11 o' clock at night or like 3 in the morning? I'm like, because I just happened to think of something and I was so paranoid I was going to forget. And they're like, look, just like set some boundaries. And so that has been really great for me. [00:37:22] Speaker C: So yes, yeah, everybody kind of keeping everyone in check out of love. [00:37:27] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, on that note, y', all, we gotta take a break. So some self care right there. Taking a break. But catch us because we are about to end this show and we're gonna continue to have Natalie and Alex with us. In this last segment, you were listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7 the capstone. [00:37:49] Speaker A: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa. [00:37:58] Speaker C: Welcome back listeners. You are listening to Fit to Be tied with Sheena and Nika on 90.7 the capstone. And as we are wrapping up our show today with our awesome guests from Collegiate Recovery, Alex and Natalie, we have One more kind of CRC related question for you guys. How can our listeners out there get in touch with you? [00:38:18] Speaker D: It is so easy. You can go to our website, which is Chriscris UA Edu. You can fill out a very short, easy, quick submission. Once we receive that information, we'll give you a call. [00:38:32] Speaker A: It's just name, email address, phone number. That's it. [00:38:35] Speaker D: There's no pressure when we talk to the students or parents. If they're inquiring about our services, we're not forcing it on them. We just want to know how we can help. [00:38:44] Speaker C: Right. [00:38:45] Speaker D: And then we want to talk to them about what our community offers. [00:38:48] Speaker C: Okay. [00:38:49] Speaker D: We also let me plug our social media. [00:38:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:52] Speaker D: At Bama Recovery. [00:38:54] Speaker C: At Bama Recovery. [00:38:55] Speaker D: Recovery. [00:38:56] Speaker B: Hey, that's a. That's. That's a. Y' all. Have a good one. You know how people will luck out with, like a good social media handle? [00:39:02] Speaker D: No numbers. [00:39:03] Speaker B: Yes. Weird. You know. Yeah, we'll take it. Okay, so at this point, this is where I'm gonna go rogue and ask y' all a non work related question. And so this will just be for our guests. Anika, you and I, we don't have to feel pressured by this. And I say that mostly because we. We've answered this in the past. So now it's time for our guests to experience. Okay, so I want to know if which celebrity would play you in a lifetime? Well, it doesn't have to be a Lifetime movie. It doesn't have to be anything drama. But just in a movie or biopic or anything, what celebrity would you want to play you in your life movie? [00:39:46] Speaker D: Julia Roberts. [00:39:48] Speaker B: Oh, that's a good one for you. Yeah, that's. That's on the. No, I. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah. For sure. Yes. [00:39:55] Speaker A: I've always gotten the Jeepers Creepers guy. What's. Oh, Justin Long, I think is his name. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Yes. [00:40:03] Speaker C: Okay. [00:40:03] Speaker A: But if it was my choice, Dave Chappelle. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. That is a mic drop moment if there ever was one. That's actually pretty good. [00:40:13] Speaker C: That's pretty good. [00:40:14] Speaker B: That is really good. Okay. I. Juggling. Okay, y', all, y' all have been fabulous. Thank you for bringing so much information today. Thank you for bringing the joy and the laughs. We cannot wait to see what the collegiate recovery community is up to the rest of this semester as well as in the spring. As always, you know, we're going to continue to have y' all on the show because we love y' all so much. [00:40:40] Speaker C: Exactly. And for anybody that is just tuning in, if you get the feeling, visit the shirt shop in the month of September to look for the CRCs, you know, kind of special. [00:40:55] Speaker B: Special edition shirt. [00:40:56] Speaker C: Yes, special edition. So you can be part of the, you know, in the know club. [00:40:59] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, with that said, we'll say a little Roll Tide. And thank you, listeners, for listening to Fit to Be tight tide on 90.7 the capstone. We will catch you next week. [00:41:15] Speaker A: WVUAFM, Tuscaloosa.