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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 9: Demystifying Treatment for Substance Use
In this episode of The Recovery Playbook, Dr. Shorter and Leaf talk outline what treatment for substance use disorder really entails.
Many people think treatment simply involves 28-30 days in a treatment facility. However, as Leaf points out, recovering from addiction is rarely so simple or straightforward.
Dr. Shorter explains the continuum of care that those seeking recovery most often experience, from medically managed detox services and inpatient treatment to intensive outpatient programs, partial hospital programs, sober living and more.
For Leaf, his recovery journey included many of those treatment options and required 18 months of care. But he shares that it was one of the best times of his life and that it gave him the time to get well. He also shares that he's still on his recovery journey, which includes biweekly therapy and the occasional couples counseling.
When he played football, Leaf says he trained his body; with recovery from addiction, he's training his mind, too.
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.
