Early Brunner says they spent 13 years quitting drinking and drugs. They say it's a common refrain for people going through recovery. The major problem for them was the only options available were religiously affiliated groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. So in 2024, Brunner formed a secular, queer-friendly recovery program, Recovery Demystified. They were also recently awarded a $5,000 NWA Weaver Award to help establish recovery programming. Brunner tells Ozarks at Large's Daniel Caruth that decoupling religion from recovery can be a lifeline for many people struggling with addiction.
Brunner: Yeah, so it's super common where people, like with religious trauma or people that just want a more science-based approach to addiction and recovery, walk into a 12-step meeting and they see the word God all over the wall, and they're in a church, and they're like, well, this isn't for me. And then they go back out into the world, and there's nothing else except the arms of their drug dealer or the open doors of the liquor store. So it just became so apparent to me that something else needed to happen. And so we especially serve all of these forgotten people, these historically marginalized populations. There's a lot of religious trauma within the LGBT community, which I'm a part of and which we welcome with open arms. There's not a lot of focus on taking care of people with disabilities and honoring their unique needs, so we have a lot of folks, including myself, who are neurodivergent, who feel much more comfortable within our program. And then there's also not a lot of anti-racist analysis within the addiction recovery landscape, which we also highlight and focus on the importance of. And we also believe that the unhoused community doesn't need to be left behind either, and lending an arm of empowerment to people. Instead of telling people what to do, can we ask people, what do you need, and how can we provide that for you? And that's what makes us different.
Caruth: Well, can you talk about that model a little bit, about how you're going into it, maybe subverting or changing the normal structures of how addiction recovery would work? What is different about this program, and why is that something you wanted to address and do?
Brunner: What makes us different is that we empower people. We ask them, what do you need, and how can we provide that for you? And if you don't know what you need, how can we foster an environment where people feel vulnerable but comfortable enough to explore their internal landscape and find what is it that I do need? Because one size fits all isn't real. It's not real for hats, and it's not real for addiction recovery. And that's the most important thing for us, is each person is an individual with a constellation of different causes and conditions and circumstances within their life. And how can we address that entire constellation of causes and conditions with each unique individual, to create micro changes in every part of our lives, to foster a strong sense of self-worth, self-trust, independence, and then also community.
Caruth: And looking at this moment, I think that our understanding of addiction and recovery has changed a lot in the past maybe decade or so, especially with the rise in opioids and fentanyl and these concerted efforts from groups to address that. From your perspective on the recovery side, have you seen it change? Have you seen people's perspectives and understandings and even the stigma around it change, and maybe what more needs to happen?
Brunner: Yeah, I think I've seen it change, in small fits and starts, but we have a really long way to go. Addiction is probably the most stigmatized health problem that exists. People still largely consider it a moral failure instead of a health problem, which addiction is a public health crisis. I don't know a single person that I've ever talked to that says, I've never met anyone with an addiction. Every single person that I've talked to, especially since starting this project and being more public about my recovery, if a person hasn't personally suffered with an addiction themselves, they have a loved one who has, who's passed away from an overdose, or a loved one who is struggling, and it affects every single one of us. So I think it is really important to be able to destigmatize it and honor the fact that this is a health problem, and that as a community, we would all do better if we treated people with decency and dignity instead of shunning them. One of the main changes that I have seen in the past several years is SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, officially recognized harm reduction as a valid method of healing. So for a long time, and especially when we're talking about 12-step programs, it's abstinence only. And that's again a reflection of the indoctrination of religion into addiction recovery, is that it's purity culture. It's all or nothing. It's abstinence only. But with that public recognition, that harm reduction is recognized in official literature as evidence-based practice, that itself takes the stigma out of people who are still in the process, who are trying different things, who maybe aren't able to quit something all at once, people using medically assisted treatment, such as Suboxone or methadone or something of that nature. And I guess also with the growth of the prevalence of having naloxone or Narcan and fentanyl test strips publicly available, I think people are recognizing that addressing the opioid epidemic and the overdose crisis, as more and more of us lose loved ones, is absolutely essential. So that is a meaningful change I've seen in the right direction, because obviously no one needs to die because they're suffering from an addiction. But we have a ton more work to do on destigmatizing this particular health problem.
Caruth: And talking about the community aspect of this, you recently were awarded a Weaver Award. You were one of the recipients for this program. Can you talk about getting that recognition, and what that felt like, what that was for you?
Brunner: When I first read the criteria for the Weaver Award, I actually applied last year and didn't get it, and then did get it this year. When I read it last year, I was like, wow, they're exactly describing the thing that I'm trying to do. So when I saw that they were funding this type of project, I was like, oh wow, maybe what I'm doing is valuable and is worth something. And it gave me that extra jolt to be able to keep doing the sober social events and keep doing the support group. When I got the email that I received it this year, I was so excited. I was in the kitchen with my mom, and she was talking, and I was like, mom, mom, mom, mom, stop, stop, stop, stop. And I was like, I finally got a grant. Someone, some outside party, thinks that my project is good enough to give money to. It feels so immensely validating. I love being part of the community of Northwest Arkansas. One of the things that I think is so cool about our area is that there's opportunity to make new things. We live in a place where everything doesn't exist yet, so we still have an opportunity to make something new.
Caruth: Well, what are you hoping to use that grant for? What is your idea, or hope, to plant that seed with this money?
Brunner: So for the past a little over a year, we've been doing sober social events with the community. One of the biggest qualms that I hear with folks that are early in addiction recovery, almost everyone says, well, what do I do now that I can't go to the bar anymore? Or, I just realized some of my friends weren't really my friends now that I'm off drugs. So we'd been doing those sober social events just to bring people together and give them an option. Here, we're going to go bowling, or we're going to do sober karaoke. And so we're going to use the money to be able to continue to sustainably do those events. For us, it's really important to have finances not be a barrier to joining. And then I'm also going to use the money to reach out to more underserved populations. We're going to do more outreach in the unhoused population, and then more work with people who are justice involved. So we're going to talk about starting a support group inside the jail. We're going to start working with people in mental health court and with drug court. And there's just so many extra barriers for people who have been involved with the criminal legal system to integrate back into society. And we're going to use the money to just get even further into the nooks and crannies of people that are forgotten and stigmatized.
Caruth: Well, there's also an element of that, of making it, of the destigmatizing, but also it's inclusive. You don't have to be in recovery to be with people who are not drinking, or be it a sober event. Can you talk about that paradigm shift, of not making this something that's exclusive, that it's inclusive to everyone?
Brunner: Yeah, that's really important too, because some people are just sober curious. Some people are not in recovery but just want to go to an event where people aren't using substances. And then also we do this thing where we join in on other events that already exist. We've gone to a pre-existing juggling club. And I think doing things like that is really cool, because folks in early addiction recovery who can't see socializing outside of the bar then see, oh, there's a group of 30 people at Walker Park that have a juggling club every Thursday, and look how much fun they're having, and none of them are drinking or using drugs, and it's all just wholesome and already existing. It's just, the community building with people in addiction recovery doesn't need to be exclusively with other people in addiction recovery. It's about integrating back into society at large, and just making connections anywhere that they can be found.
Caruth: And going back to when you started this, as you were starting to gain traction and people were coming to the meetings, what were some of the things that people said to you that made you say, okay, I think we need to keep doing this, or I want to grow this? What sort of feedback did you get from people? Was there anything that stuck out in your mind that was like, oh, this is important, what I'm doing?
Brunner: Yeah, I could see visually the changes in people's emotions when they're coming to the group. I could see new people coming to the group, quiet, sad, withdrawn. And then, after getting to know the other people in the group and visiting several times, I see people start to crack open and open up and become more vulnerable and smile and laugh. Seeing it in front of my eyes made me know that I could never stop doing this. We meet at The Library Vintage, and it's a small space, and we're all happily crammed into the corner of that space. And people hear about it mostly from word of mouth. At this point, it's never been a struggle to get people to show up to our support group or our sober social events, because people are hungry for it. They need it.
Caruth: Well, what do people need to know if they are sober curious, or they want to know more about your organization? What are kind of the main things that people need to know about?
Brunner: So the support groups are the only thing that happens with certain regularity, and those are at 6 p.m. every Monday at The Library Vintage. And then the sober social events happen, they're different every month, so the easiest way to find out about them is by following us on Instagram at Recovery Demystified, or checking our website, RecoveryDemystified.com.
Early Brunner is the founder of Recovery Demystified and a 2026 NWA Weaver Award recipient. They spoke with Ozarks at Large's Daniel Caruth at the Carver Center for Public Radio last week.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
