Inside Your Kid’s Mind: Hidden Pain Behind Substance Use, with Brad McLeod

About this episode

Brad McLeod shares his journey through addiction and recovery, emphasizing that sobriety is just the beginning of a new life.

Episode 325 ABOUT THE EPISODE: Brad was 17, sitting in a psych ward for the second time, when a stranger told him about a program in Tennessee. He said no. He ran from a rest stop on the highway, and the police caught him a few hours later. That moment tells you everything about where he was: a kid who had never learned to stay, never learned to feel, and hadn’t yet found anything worth staying for. What followed was more than a decade of trying to outrun himself. Percocet. Heroin. A methadone clinic he drove to every morning with no car and no money. A felony conviction at 18. A deportation to Canada with a lifetime ban from the US. Brad doesn’t tell his story like a cautionary tale. He tells it like someone who finally understands what his brain was looking for, and what it took to stop running long enough to build something worth keeping. Today he hosts Sober Motivation, a top 0.5% podcast globally with more than five million downloads, and runs an online community for people in recovery. He started it from his basement not because he had the answers, but because he knew what it felt like to be alone in this. This conversation is for every parent who has watched their child go…

People in this episode

Host: Brenda Zane

Guest: Brad McLeod

Topics covered

• substance use
• addiction recovery
• parenting
• mental health
• personal story

Keywords

• substance use
• addiction
• recovery
• parenting
• mental health
• sobriety
• personal story

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sober Motivation

Places: Tennessee, Canada

More episodes of Hopestream for parenting kids through drug use and addiction

• The Thing Your Kid Can’t Tell You When They’re Struggling, with Enzo Narciso · June 11, 2026
• 10 Self Coaching Questions for Parents of Kids Who Struggle With Mental Health and Substances, with Brenda Zane · June 4, 2026
• Letting Your Child Struggle and Choosing Love Over Fear, with Dr. Wes Robins · May 28, 2026
• Connect Before You Correct: Breaking Generational Patterns, with Lacey Tezino · May 21, 2026
• Co-Dependency Isn’t What You Think, with Rawly Glass, LCSW · May 7, 2026
• Stuck After Treatment: Real Options Parents Overlook, with Will White · April 30, 2026