# A Decade Long Addiction to Opioids | How I Broke the Chains and Got Clean & Sober Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/rise-above-with-kevin-lanning-6803198/a-decade-long-addiction-to-opioids-how-i-broke-the-chains-and-got-clean-sober Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/rise-above-with-kevin-lanning-6803198/a-decade-long-addiction-to-opioids-how-i-broke-the-chains-and-got-clean-sober.md Podcast: [Rise Above with Kevin Lanning](https://stenobird.com/podcast/rise-above-with-kevin-lanning-6803198) Published: 2026-07-22T21:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/AKTBA6923799554.mp3 Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/AKTBA6923799554.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/rise-above-with-kevin-lanning-6803198/episodes/a-decade-long-addiction-to-opioids-how-i-broke-the-chains-and-got-clean-sober Duration seconds: 6878 ## Resource By June of 2017, Billy Rich had nothing left in his own eyes. A decade into opioid addiction, isolated in a blacked-out bedroom in Rhode Island, cut off from his family, grieving his father, buried under legal fear and a mental state he describes as beyond anything he'd known — he had decided he was done. He didn't see a recovery option. He didn't think there was a way out. He survived that night. Something he can only describe as divine intervention pulled him back at the last possible second, and for the first time he heard a different thought: maybe I'm still here for a reason. His mother found him, got on the phone calling every detox in a fifty-mile radius, and Billy walked into treatment the next day. What followed was the slow, unglamorous work of rebuilding a person — eighteen weeks in an outpatient program when the standard was six, learning who he was without a substance for the first time since he was a teenager, walking miles to and from treatment every day because his life was in pieces. Nine years later, Billy is engaged, has a two-year-old, has built a career with more opportunity than he ever imagined, and walked into this interview with a smile he couldn't have pictured back then. By June of 2017, Billy Rich had nothing left in his own eyes. A decade into opioid addiction, isolated in a blacked-out bedroom in Rhode Island, cut off from his family, grieving his father, buried under legal fear and a mental state he describes as beyond anything he'd known — he had decided he was done. He didn't see a recovery option. He didn't think there was a way out.He survived that night. Something he can only describe as divine intervention pulled him back at the last possible second, and for the first time he heard a different thought: maybe I'm still here… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/rise-above-with-kevin-lanning-6803198/episodes/a-decade-long-addiction-to-opioids-how-i-broke-the-chains-and-got-clean-sober/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/rise-above-with-kevin-lanning-6803198/a-decade-long-addiction-to-opioids-how-i-broke-the-chains-and-got-clean-sober.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.