Marketing Addiction Recovery: Reaching Teens For Prevention And Intervention

Today, I sit down with Sara Buckler, a recovery advocate and marketing professional who's spent more than a decade working in addiction treatment. Ms. Buckler shares her powerful personal story, from entering recovery after years of struggling with substance use that began at eighteen, to becoming a marketing specialist helping recovery programs reach those still trapped in addiction. We take a look at how social media, family dynamics, and early intervention programs shape the trajectory of teens at risk.

We dive deep into the challenges of public health messaging in the age of viral cat videos and AI-generated content. Ms. Buckler and I explore why addiction prevention content often gets overlooked online, and how consistency, trust, and strategic community engagement can help change that. We also discuss stigma—how it's embedded in schools, media, and even social expectations around sobriety—and why reducing it must be a central part of recovery marketing.

Ms. Buckler shares the wide range of services offered by the Cenikor Foundation, including residential treatment, detox, virtual programs, military-focused care, and support for uninsured individuals. She walks us through how they partner with schools, provide alumni support, and even coordinate events across Texas and New Mexico.

I speak on public education dynamics around addiction, and some improvements in school and parental mindset and intervention.

https://www.cenikor.org/

Website: https://coupleonukes.com

Exodus, Honor Your Heart, & Thrive Alcohol Recovery: https://www.coupleonukes.com/affiliates/

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*Couple O' Nukes LLC and Mr. Whiskey are not licensed medical entities, nor do they take responsibility for any advice or information put forth by guests. Take all advice at your own risk.

Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple of Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and on this show we've done a lot with addiction, recovery and treatment. I've interviewed plenty of people who are addicted themselves. I've interviewed people who are working with different ways to you cure substance abuse from different medications, to laser acupuncture, to just fitness and the role it plays.

And so. Today we're gonna take a different angle. We're gonna look at the connection between recovery and help from third party programs, whatever that may be, and to those people who are actually addicted and their loved ones, AKA marketing. Our biggest focus today being how do we reach the youth and what role does social media play, especially because we know it's no secret that.

Most of the people I've interviewed on my show, their addiction started in their teenage years. Some of them, even younger than that, as young as 12 years old. So how do we reach these teens and their parents and their mentors to get them help before it's too late, before it gets worse? And so we're gonna be exploring that today along with just addiction support in general with Ms.

Sarah Butler. So great to have you here to cover this subject. And could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure. Yes. Thank you so much for having me today. Mr. Whiskey, it's great to be here and to meet you. So a little bit about me. Let's see. I am in recovery. I've been in recovery for almost 12 years.

I'm grateful to be in recovery. It's definitely been been just amazing experience. It's such a wonderful community to be in. And I have been in. The recovery world working in it for a little over 10 years and just exploring like evidence-based practices and learning that as the world is evolving with different substances and things like that, that it's not a.

One size fits all approach that we need to take and really look at individuals and their treatment plans very individualized and just treat them with dignity and respect. And so that's been really a great practice that I've brought into marketing. And yeah, I'm a mother and a wife and definitely a Christian too.

So I lead with that. In the work that I do. Right. So when you mentioned you've been in recovery, can you tell us a little bit about that journey from start to now, kind of some of the struggles you faced that have shaped you? Yes, absolutely. So actually my addiction began at 18 in high school. So when we're talking about adolescence and even just teenage years that's when my journey started.

It was really a lot about just the people that I was around and peer pressure. And so that's a lot of what happens with adolescents and just not knowing my place and where I fit in the world. And so, you know, that's, that's where I started and I started an outpatient program and then actually went through seven different programs.

Not all of them stuck and I left programs absconded and a PA is what we call it left against professional advice a couple times and just really had a hard time understanding and finding the support that I needed. And then that last time of my recovery journey, this, this, how I came to 12 years was really just understanding what the community was about and really getting into like alcohol anonymous and.

Na and really diving deep and understanding that lifelong journey and commitment that I needed and, and understanding transformation as a whole. And so, yeah, that's really the gist of it, but it was a long journey from that to get to that 12 years. 'cause I had lots of stints of recovery that didn't stick, but I just never gave up and my family was there with me on the journey the whole time.

And also. I will say though, being that I work in recovery is a huge part of it. Helping other people is really a great piece of the recovery journey for me because I'm helping. People that, and, and giving back and doing for, for others what was done for me. And so that's really important to me.

And staying connected to the recovery community, I know I've said that multiple times, but I just wanna emphasize how important that that is in that strong focus for recovery, people in recovery. For sure. I completely agree. Because a lot of people who relapsed it was when they were alone or isolated, right?

So that community is important for accountability. And then I agree just with me, I've never been addicted, but I come from a family of addiction multiple generations and every time if I ever have any thoughts of drinking or that kind of stuff in a negative manner. It helps thinking about all the people who have been on my show, not just the expectation that I have to meet as the host and as someone who works in recovery, but also just knowing some of the things they've been through and some of the.

Terrible, terrible things they've been through and the way it affected their loved ones, which is part of, I know that I never want to affect people the way that some of the people in my family who are addicted have affected others. And so being constantly connected with people who are in recovery or recovered, you know, it's extremely helpful.

Like you said, I think that community aspect is so important. Even when you've been, like, in your case, 12 years, right? I know people who go to AA in their seventies and they've been sober for 30, 40 years. But it's about that, you know, community aspect being and also relating to people and being there as a source for them as much as they are for you.

So I think that's important. And you mentioned, you know, the teenage years. Mm-hmm. And it's, it's hard because we. You can put negative influences more easily. And what I mean by that is like if you made a, a rap song about doing drugs or alcohol and you made one about addiction recovery, right? That's not to say both won't be successful, but one is gonna get pushed much further.

I was actually. You know, having a conversation this morning about this actually, because I was scrolling through social media and I saw there's a lot of AI generated videos nowadays. Some of them are just completely messed up and I, I, I saw one about AI generated video of humanoid cats and it had like 543,000 likes.

Isn't that crazy? Crazy. Well, I recently put out. A pregnancy support social media reel promoting a guidebook I made that's free on my website to help provide and navigate resources for women who are pregnant, who are facing financial crisis, spiritual crisis, whatever it may be. Mm-hmm. Right. And.

Does not have 543,000 likes, I'll tell you that much. But that's just a specific example. But in general, me and a lot of the guests I've had on my show who put forward social media clips about suicide prevention, addiction recovery, that kind of stuff, it doesn't go as far as. Stuff that promotes that stuff or stuff that is in tandem with that stuff.

So, I mean, how do we Public, public health education, right. That you're trying to put forth. Right, right. Because also, yeah. Now that you mentioned public health, you know, our school system and their approach to addiction and their conversations on it, I believe are not very effective. Right. I mean. They're doing what they can to a degree.

So I think social media becomes that next layer of public education, as you mentioned. So trying to market on there. So how do we reach these teenagers? Is it really about them themselves or do we need to reach their parents and guardians? I mean, what is kind of the tactic here? I think both, right? So we have to get it from all angles.

Adv advocacy and policy change is a big thing. Promoting access to resources. A big one is stigma reduction, which you're kind of talking about because of social media and what is attracting the mind and what we're putting in the mind. But we need to, we need to definitely. Stigma reduction is a huge thing.

Prevention and early intervention is, is really huge and I think it does start at the family. But the kids. The kids are the ones that have to show up, right? But the family has to get them there because obviously the, the parents are leading the family. So like for us where I work, Suncor Foundation, we do a lot of prevention and early intervention.

And I feel like that's. Not all programs do that. We do that through like community campaigns. We do offer it in school programs. We actually go into schools and do that. And that's like a really big deal just because that's how we can get there and don't necessarily have to go through a family. We just have like, contracts with the different schools in different areas and, and then under that, that helps 'em to understand the risk of substance use before it escalates. And it encourages and just es and educates them on substances and the misuse of substance abuse. So just early intervention and then that way we don't get to that point of needing to go into inpatient or outpatient programs.

Yeah, I think one of the issues is like you look at. Commercials, but especially movies and TV shows. And what they're showing is, oh, it's not a party until people are drinking or doing drugs. And they, they always show the good side, but you're not seeing that bad side. You're not seeing movies about, you know, the addict or how this guy destroyed his family with his addiction.

You're not seeing movies about that or TV issues about that. Right. And I think. You mentioned the stigma in in a previous episode with Mary haw cliffe on, she does the laser light acupuncture for addiction treatment. And she mentioned the idea that, you know, if she says at a party like, no, I don't drink.

They're like, oh, why do you have a problem? Or Why, why are you choosing to be sober? Right? And it's like, no, that's just my choice. And then it's like, okay, well do you smoke? It's like you have to do one or the other too. Be cool if we didn't it. Like it's a people question it. People aren't just like, okay, you don't drink.

That's cool. There's always a why. Why don't you drink? You know, there it is like an accusation almost. It's an expectation, and I think that's like a lot of the people I've had on my show who were addicts, it was part of this societal expectation wherever they were at that peer pressure. I know you mentioned some influences in your life, right?

It's like, okay, everyone else is doing it, and if I don't do it. I'm a loser or I'm weird, I'm outcasted. You know, especially as a teenager, those that desire to fit in and you know, to compromise your morals to do so is a lot more likely than when you're older. But even as an adult, there are plenty of people who normally don't drink, but they're at a social function, so they feel like they have to drink, otherwise they're being rude or not fitting in.

So what, can you speak to that part and kind of share a little bit about the influences in your life when you were 18? Yeah. So I think just like you're talking about, stigma reduction is gonna be huge and promoting that it's okay and it's not a moral failing to not do those things. I think as far as for myself and, and the way it was for me I am a very empathetic.

Person. I'm an empath and so I've always been that way. And when I was younger I didn't know how to cope with those emotions. Still sometimes don't, of course, but I just have better skills that I've developed over time. Obviously being in recovery, you learn those things and I'm older too, so I know how to say no now.

Right. But when I was younger I typically would go and sit with the people that were. Struggling and empathize with them. And when you're, when you're hanging out with a crowd that's not making good choices, the longer that you do that and you sit there, you, you tend to be, become the crowd, right?

You're gonna eventually sit with them for too long and then the peer pressure becomes too much and you're gonna end up becoming. What, what you're around, you know? There's a saying that, you know, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. And that's pretty much what happened. And I didn't choose the best five to hang around as Tony Robbins says, you know, find your, find your five.

Well, I found the wrong five for me. And so yeah, that, that became my future. And so I think that that's, when you're young, we're just so impressionable. And so it's really important. And that's also now. I had really great friends and I was I played basketball and I was into sports and I really was not the type that you would think I say the type because, you know, I, I wasn't the type that you would think would start doing drugs, but I just Right.

Ended up crossing that railroad, you know, on the other side and, and making poor choices. But ultimately did lead me to my career and I have such a great career and I have such a great friend group now, so. But it doesn't always work out that way for people. I mean, with the way substances are now, you know, one pill kills, so you, you don't, we don't have that choice now.

We have to make, we have to be very careful on the choices that we make. So yeah, it's we really have to encourage young adults and teenagers to really be cautious and make better choices. Yeah. Right. And I mentioned social media, it's a huge influence because, I mean, I don't have, you know, studies on hand, but I can tell you just from what I've observed personally, people spend a lot of screen time, you know, on social media.

Some people it's a couple hours a day, like actual couple of hours, which is a lot. Yes. Yeah. And so. What role does that play in terms of like, you, specifically with your work, do you design social media ads that are treatment based? And if so, what have you found to be successful and not successful?

Yeah, so I mean, I think oftentimes people can get like marketing wrong as far as what it can be, but in our world we do try and take it. We do try and like build trust and credibility. We're really trying to connect people to help. And even in the world that we're in, sometimes there can be some, some bad apples, you know, because we're, we're working in a field where people we're all, most of us are in recovery and, you know, sometimes we're not in recovery when we're in recovery, you know, so, we're trying to build, trying to be transparent and, have good ethics, I guess is a good way to put it. So, but basically we're, we're, we're trying to connect people to help. And what I think some people often get it wrong is that it's, we're manipulating or you know, maybe only focusing on admissions 'cause we're trying to get people to come to treatment.

But and, or maybe neglecting like cultural sensitivities and stuff like that, but really that's not what we're trying to do. I think that, what we try to do at Suncore Foundation is really try to build connection and lead people to, to coming in for admission and just do it the right way. But what some people may do, or even like what you're talking about that can happen is like.

Neglecting diversity, you know, and not being culturally sensitive. Maybe even just, I know I've said it a couple times, but just manipulating the story of what it really may be like That, that if someone's holding a beer or something, you know, oh, this is great, this is great, but you're not seeing on the other end that it may lead you to jail if you go and drive after.

And so that's just not what our stories are about and the influence that we're trying to have for, for people, and we're not profit driven, so. Yeah, I think something you kind of hinted at there was the stigma around marketing as something that is supposed to be, you know, morally based. So, for example, if a shoe company has advertisements online like, Hey, come buy these shoes.

No one says that's bad. But if an addiction treatment center is, you know, running ads to get people admitted in to get help, it's like. You're taking advantage of people who are sick to make a profit. It's interesting that kind of double standard almost that you have, like it's because it was also a business, therefore now you've compromised morally.

But if you were an immoral business doing, you know, just business, it's fine. So I think it's interesting how people react to advertisements in different fields and kind of like. Judge, pick and choose, if that makes sense. I felt like you kind of hinted at that a little bit, where like people feel like, oh, you should.

Like I, I've heard this a lot with people who are life coaches or do addiction and substance abuse recovery. It's like, oh, well you should do that stuff for free. Why do you charge for it? You know? And I understand there's a balance to be had. Unfortunately there's a lot of backlash that comes from that.

But I think, like you said, being transparent, I think we need more. Not just direct social media ads, but just content in general. Yeah, and I think one of the things that me and a lot of podcasters and quote influencers who work in the field of addiction recovery, one thing we try to do more importantly than, than likes or than shares is consistency.

You know, like you said, building that trust and reputation, being consistent, always putting out, you know, that information and that content for just, not now, but for years to come. I like that. I like that a lot. Yes, we do accept unfunded clients where I work. So I feel like that helps with like community engagement on our marketing and with professionals and referrals in the community and things like that.

So. Yeah. And can you just tell us a little more about SCO in general? Kind of. Okay. I know there's a couple different programs from gosh, yes. You know, know adults to teens, to military and the different programs and levels of care. I always have to check just 'cause there's so many programs that we do.

So we've been around for nearly 60 years. We do detox for adults, not for adolescent. For adolescent, we only do residential and aftercare with a recovery support specialist up to 90 days. But for adults, we do detox medication assisted treatment, inpatient residential, residential, partial hospitalization outpatient.

We do virtual and in person. And then we also offer recovery housing and RSS. Support. We have multiple locations throughout Texas. We have two where we're our corporate offices. We're in Houston. We also have our adult and adolescent in Houston. And then we also have adult services in Dallas, Waco, Tyler, oh gosh, I'm forgetting so many.

Amarillo, we have one in Farmington, New Mexico. We have Corpus Christi, Texas. And then we have outpatient and Killeen Stephenville Houston Decatur, Dallas. We have prevention services in San Marcus and a bunch of other like Amarillo Tyler, Dallas for sure. With so many services. And then our recovery housing, we have Amarillo, Dallas, Houston.

In Waco and then we have a women's only center in San Antonio, Texas for residential. And we take most commercial insurance, Medicaid and we also take unfunded in the state of Texas. Okay. Lot going on. Yeah. I know you mentioned different, pretty much you, the city for anything. Yeah. You mentioned a couple different programs, so ideally anyone struggling with drug or alcohol abuse can go there and get some kind of treatment depending on kind of what they want or need.

Yeah, we have like 560 beds, and the biggest thing is you don't have to have insurance to come to scor. Right. I think that's really important. 'cause a lot mm-hmm. Especially a lot of people who are really far into addiction often end up homeless or in a financial struggle. So then it's really important to have that Friday.

And then what else can you tell us about as far as like events and all that stuff and like you kind of mentioned community quite a bit. So we're really big on connection and community. We have an alumni program that's huge, so anyone that's come to our program, even if you left before you completed, we let you come to any of our alumni events.

And in September for recovery month, we're having our first big alumni event virtually. And so, we're sending that out and put posting that on our socials here soon. And so, maybe we just say to anybody that's listening, you know. Please come. If you've ever been for the past, you know, almost 60 years, we'd like them to come and show up for that.

And then we're gonna start having those quarterly. We're also having quarterly events for all of our alumni at each of our locations. We have big Texas rallies coming up at a couple of locations throughout the state of Texas, and we'll be there. So we'd love to see everybody there. But yeah.

And then we just did open, in Farmington, a psychiatric outpatient location. That's really big for us right now. That's, I think that's some new, new stuff that's going on for us for sure. Like you said, there's a lot going on. Yeah. And. What would you say are some of the like, biggest issues with addiction treatment in general nowadays?

I know we mentioned a lot about the stigma. Is there anything else going on that is kind of really hindering you know, addiction, treatment and recovery? You know, I wouldn't say like hindering or going on. I know that there's a lot of policy changes happening this upcoming year and I just would.

Just say to everything, to everyone, like, it's gonna be all right. We have a lot of changes going on in the world, and just reinforce that that treatment is still accessible to everyone and that we're gonna navigate the complex healthcare and the support system together and, and just reach out to us.

If they need help, we're gonna be here and we're excited for what's to come. Right. I know one of the biggest concerns people have is access to care including for addiction treatment. So I think, like you said, having programs set up that are easily accessible and people can have access to. And one important thing is, like you said, is people knowing about these resources.

So what can we all do to help spread these resources effectively? Yeah. Well, I think like for, for us we're a resource no matter if we are the end resource, we're gonna help you find a resource. So we have outreach managers throughout the state of Texas and in New Mexico. So even if we're not the end place that you land.

You can call us and we're gonna actually have an outreach team member contact you in the end and help find you a resource. And we are open 24 7, our admissions line, so they can actually, people can actually call us at like eight, eight, eight sco. It's a super easy phone number. And even if like, we're not the, the person, like I said, that ends up being where people go.

We have outreach managers that help place them. So we're gonna be a resource no matter what, and help connect a person to their final part piece of their journey. Right? And just speaking of, you know, different groups of people and stuff, and I wanna mention, I do think you know that all schools should be equipped with a station that has suicide prevention resources, addiction prevention, and intervention resources, and that that should be more available like 9, 8, 8.

Right. If it mm-hmm. Even if it was like different pamphlets for different organizations such as the, the one you work for or just, you know, different online resources. I think that more places should provide that, especially in schools, you know, because I think, like we mentioned earlier, if I'm a teenager and I'm struggling with peer pressure or beginning to use drugs or alcohol, and I don't know who to go to, you know, I might not go talk to a guidance counselor or a teacher.

And let's say the opposite side. My parents are the cause of my addiction. I can't go to them. Who's my trusted adult, right? But if I knew, if I was walking around school and I saw, oh, here's some phone numbers. You can call and talk to someone confidentially, or here are some different organizations that can get you information.

So I think that's important. That's part of why I have my show. But I also understand that. You know, there's not a bunch of teenagers out there listening to my show who are addicted and know about that. So I think all of us have a part to play in resource provision. And I think that includes as adults, even as parents that are standing, that our children or you know, teenagers might not want to come to us.

You know, they might want to talk to someone else. And I think schools need to understand too, like, Hey, they might not trust our teachers or our guidance counselors. But they, here are some programs that they do trust. So I think that's so important to provide those resources and have those available. You know, and so I think that's really important.

And I was gonna just gonna say that I know that Corp is, has a big military program and is involved with that. So do y'all accept, you know, the va, you know, Tricare and other different stuff like that, do you kind of work hand in hand or how does that work for military members? Active and veteran? Thank you for bringing that up.

I, I failed to mention that. Yes. We do work with we have a lot of contracts with the VA and we do accept Tricare Tri, Trice Tri West. We accept all of those at any of our programs. And we, even recently, they were doing in Austin where they were going out under the bridges and stuff to try and find specific military.

I can't remember what it was called exactly, but we held beds at our Austin location specific for va. So yes, absolutely we will accept any veterans and their families. Awesome. And I know on your website there's a lot about the different programs and their, their costs, the, you know, the patient's rights and responsibilities different, you know, information on.

Visitation hours on the different treatment programs and level of care. So we're gonna have that website link and description below for people to check out, not just those who are addicted, but more importantly their loved ones and people who want more resources. Even if you're not addicted, or have someone who's addicted the chances of someone you know, or meeting someone who is addicted.

Last I checked was like one in seven people know someone who is really dealing with addiction or suicide. And so I think it's really important to have these conversations to provide these resources and for people to be aware of them for not just now, but for whenever they may need it in the future.

'cause you never know when it can happen. A lot of people, and I especially, I featured on the show so many people talking about highly functioning alcoholics or, or people who use drugs and you know. For years, people have been blind to some of the people in their life being addicted and now all of a sudden they're like having a crisis, like what's going on.

So I think it's important to just be ready at all times and to know this. And so I also encourage everyone to share these resources. Absolutely. Thank you so much.