DeLine Online: Recent Episodes
Chris DeLine
"Terra Incognita" is the twenty-first, and final part of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter reflects back on the series and ideas surrounding recovery, hope, and stepping into the unknown. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/terra-incognita
"Clarity" is the twentieth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter explores the necessity for personal sobriety in my own life and conclusions surrounding unique paths toward individual well-being. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/clarity
"Does Rehab Work?" is the nineteenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter looks into what it means to say that rehab has "worked," also addressing whether or not that's the question we should even be asking. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/does-rehab-work
"Adaptation" is the eighteenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter explores topics of depression, suicide, and adaptation within the context of alcoholism and how foundational health complements treatment. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/adaptation
"My A.A. Speaker Tape" is the seventeenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This features my story as presented at a speaker meeting, recorded in 2017 in Nashville, TN. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/speaker-tape
"Isolationists" is the sixteenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter looks at the role isolation plays in addiction and the relationship between mental health and being part of a like-minded community. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/isolationists
"CBT and the 12 Steps" is the fifteenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter examines the commonalities between CBT and AA's 12 Steps, as well as similarities between addiction and OCD treatment. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/cbt-12-steps
"Reconsidering Alcoholics Anonymous" is the fourteenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter uncovers the benefits of reconsidering A.A., examining Alcoholics Anonymous' curious god-factor, and how faith impacts recovery. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/alcoholics-anonymous
"What is a Relapse?" is the thirteenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter examines what the word "relapse" means, in and outside of recovery from alcohol and drug use, beyond A.A.'s definition for the term. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/relapse
"All or Nothing" is the twelfth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter tracks countless failed attempts at an all or nothing approach to drinking, and the personal realities surrounding a harm reduction model relating to drinking in moderation. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/all-nothing
"Perfectionism and Recovery" is the eleventh chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter explores what perfectionism is, its ability to influence change in people's lives, and its role in recovery from addictions. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/perfectionism-recovery
"A Crisis of Identity" is the tenth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter tracks the personal story of a suicide attempt, a rehab stint, and a return to the "real world," ultimately leaving me unsure of my own identity. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/identity-crisis
"What is Recovery?" is the ninth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter explores what terms such as "sobriety" and "recovery" mean, defining each in contrasting evolving measures of success to abstinence only models such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/what-is-recovery
"Untreatable" is the eighth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter puts a focus on the inability of success rates to determine the effectiveness of treatment for alcohol and substance-related disorders. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/untreatable
"The Disease Concept of Alcoholism" is the seventh chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter provides looks at the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder, the myriad cultural definitions of the condition & the disease concept of alcoholism. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/disease-concept-alcoholism
"One Nation Under the Influence" is the sixth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter examines the disease-concept of alcoholism and how select A.A. members influenced the federal legislation behind the rehab industry. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/one-nation-under-the-influence
"Organized Confusion" is the fifth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter provides an introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.'s Twelve Steps and Traditions, and both the problematic and beneficial nature of its groups. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/organized-confusion
"Surrender" is the fourth chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter provides an introduction to a personal drinking problem and subsequent struggles with Alcoholics Anonymous' demand to "surrender" to a Higher Power. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/surrender
"The Maze Within" is the third chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter details how perfectionism has played a role in my own addiction, and how it leads to and influences various patterns of distorted thinking. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/maze-within
"Letting Go" is the second chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. This chapter sets the stage with a history of binge drinking, compiled by legal troubles and depression, leading to suicidal resignation. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/a-new-pair-of-glasses
"A New Pair of Glasses" is the first chapter of Terminally Unique, a project focused on topics of addiction, treatment, and mental health. Full transcript available here: https://www.chrisdeline.com/blog/a-new-pair-of-glasses
Thinking out loud about media literacy, Steve Bannon and Vladislav Surkov's weaponized bullshit, and how I'm amusing myself to death.
Episode transcript and notes: https://www.chrisdeline.com/blog/amusing-myself-to-death
On the news media, subconscious biases, and our primitive drive to reinforce pre-existing beliefs in the creation of uniquely separate realities.
Episode transcript and notes: https://www.chrisdeline.com/blog/separate-realities
Lately I've been tied up in messaging, focused on who it serves to benefit. Here I look at Calvin and Hobbes, BLM, and Lady A in trying to make sense of it all.
Episode notes: https://www.chrisdeline.com/blog/to-the-benefit-of-whom
I've done a lot of work lately, looking at how I've distanced myself from Southerners to position myself as a "good" white person. What I've found is that I'm racist.
Episode notes: https://www.chrisdeline.com/blog/good-white-people
A soft focus on the idea of social conditioning, and how we have become used to overlooking what's really going on all around us.
Episode essay: https://www.chrisdeline.com/blog/is-this-water