Ep. 36 - When the Voice in Your Head Is the Loudest Thing in the Room

Dr. Steven Klein came to addiction medicine through an unusual convergence of paths. A physician and scientist triple board certified in addiction medicine, pediatrics, and medical genetics, he also carries lived experience in recovery that shapes everything about how he shows up for his patients. He speaks openly about his own relationship with substances, with food, and with the kind of internal noise that most people in active addiction know intimately. That noise, what he describes as a hierarchy of craving that drowns out everything else, is at the center of his clinical work.Much of that work now centers on GLP-1 receptor agonists, medications most people associate with weight loss, that are showing remarkable promise in quieting the craving signal in people struggling with alcohol, opioids, and other substances. Steven describes it not as a cure but as a way to lift the needle off the record long enough to learn a new song. Recovery still has to be built. But these medications may be buying patients something that's always been in short supply, time. Pam and Steven also explore the genetics and epigenetics of addiction risk, why relapse is better understood as a neurobiologic stage than a moral failure, and what it means to finally have a tool that could shift care from reactive to preventative.There is something quietly revolutionary happening at the intersection of science and compassion, and this conversation sits right in the middle of it.Contact Pam Feinberg-Rivkin:Facebook: @FeinbergCareInstagram: @FeinbergCareLinkedIn: Feinberg Consulting IncYouTube: @FeinbergConsulting8059