Episode 56: A Daughter's Rage Turned Forgiveness

Rhiannon Gancheff joined Ty in the Big Z Media studio from Florida, traveling to Illinois to meet her mother and brother for a week. There is a saying, "Addiction is not a spectator sport, and the entire family gets to play," and Rhiannon was a central teammate in her mother's addiction. Rhiannon recounts the struggles she saw her mother and father experience, from drug and alcohol addiction, toxic encounters, and infidelities, to the separation of her family that led to moving over seven hours away from Colorado to a small town in Illinois. After her mother and new step-father attempted a blended family while her mother focused on drug use, Rhiannon was left to take on the hero role in her family and help raise her younger sister and brother. The annoyance of her mother's constant drug use became full-blown resentment and rage. Eventually, through a series of events over a few years, the momentum of hate, feelings of abandonment, and sadness for her own mother, Rhiannon decided to help her mother find recovery, though, through her own admittance, was not kind to her at all. After a three-hour conversation at the kitchen table with her mom, Rhiannon let a decade of anger, sadness, shame, and resentment out, which ultimately became the pivotal moment of her healing and repairing the relationship with her mother. A true story of how families are affected by addiction and how the power of healing and recovery is possible.