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Recovery Playbook
Welcome to The Recovery Playbook, Menninger’s YouTube series featuring Daryl I. Shorter, MD, medical director for the Menninger Addictions & Recovery Medicine Center, and Ryan Leaf, who is The Clinic's Ambassador in Recovery and a college and professional football analyst.Each month, they discuss relevant recovery topics on the minds of individuals, family and friends, and treatment providers alike. They look at what’s new in substance-use recovery today, sticking points that affect relationships, coping with adversity, and breakthroughs in treatment and policy matters.
Their goal is to elevate conversation about real issues of substance use and addictions. Join us each month as Dr. Shorter and Leaf open The Recovery Playbook.
Episode 10: The Road to Recovery
In this episode of The Recovery Playbook, Dr. Shorter and Leaf talk detox, or medical withdrawal management, as the first step for many on the road to recovery. They then outline the other levels of care, including inpatient treatment, partial hospital programs and intensive outpatient programs, that someone might take advantage of as they recover.
In terms of medically managed detox services, Dr. Shorter points out how such services alleviate the need to experience the often painful symptoms of withdrawal and that depending on the substance someone is withdrawing from, detox can last a few days to more than 10.
Leaf offers his recommendations for the recovery process and shares what finally worked for him. He also acknowledges that everyone's treatment journey looks different. Both say that there's a recovery pathway for every individual.
Meet the Hosts
Ryan Leaf is a Heisman trophy finalist and second overall pick in the 1998 National Football League draft, who became known as one of the NFL’s greatest draft “busts.” He played four seasons before depression and addiction contributed to the end of his professional football career.
Leaf said that being accepted into a treatment facility, receiving a mental health diagnosis, and focusing on service to others has helped him to turn his life around. “I’m okay with who I am,” Leaf said. “I’m this flawed human being, like everybody else, who is trying to be better every day.” He shares his recovery journey with large and small groups in addition to hosting a radio show about football.
Daryl I. Shorter, MD, board certified in addictions psychiatry and adult psychiatry, is medical director of Addictions Services and leads the Addictions Medicine & Recovery Center at Menninger. An associate professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, he oversees the Addictions Medicine Fellowship Training Program. He presents nationwide at conferences for mental health professionals and his research has been published in peer-reviewed journals.
He earned his bachelor’s degree at Rice University in Houston and his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. His postgraduate training included a general psychiatry residency at The Ohio State University and an addictions fellowship at New York University.
