Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Annie Highwater. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Annie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I went through a season where addiction became prevalent all around me. The opiate epidemic exploded through my family. I devoured any content I could find on the subject. Books, lectures, classes, content, etc. I found a great deal…but it was all from the perspective of the person who overcame the addiction to a substance, chemical, or behavior. I wanted to find something from someone on the “other side of the house.” The affected family, friend, or other loved ones. The “entourage” of the addicted so to speak…those who live adjacent to addiction, alcoholism and “untreated family disease,” (family impacting and misery causing dysfunction). My work was born out of that need as well as my own desperate efforts to heal and recover from the terror, chaos, conflict and other effects of loving someone addicted or struggling with alcohol and alcoholic behaviors.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Annie Highwater, Author, Podcast Host, and Family Peer Support Specialist. For the past 15 years I’ve been working on the side of recovery that is rarely talked about: the family and loved ones who ride shotgun on the roller-coaster of addiction and alcoholism.

Addiction doesn’t just overtake the person using—it consumes the parents pacing the floor, siblings lost in the shuffle, spouses burning out, and children growing up in confusion and chaos. Families often become just as sick, obsessed, and traumatized as their addicted loved one (and are often sober through it). I call it the view from the passenger seat, we are the story of the entourage.

I have lived it as a daughter (my Mother, a devoted church lady has had a decades long battle with prescribed narcotics), I’ve been adjacent as a sister, an aunt, a friend and later in life as a wife and in a painful turn of events, also as a mother. My son struggled with opioids after a football injury. I have buried my oldest brother and my beautiful niece (his daughter) after both died from overdoses. But I have also found a way through; finding rooms myself, studying family recovery, learning things like 12 steps for loved ones, training in the C.R.A.F.T. Method, as well as conflict resolution, becoming a Family Peer Support Specialist in Ohio and having two books published, several recovery articles and have written a chapter for a book published by the Ohio State University regarding the opiate epidemic and its beginnings in this state.

My life’s mission after doing my own work to heal and obtain recovery, sanity and peace, has been to show families how to achieve “emotional sobriety,” break cycles of chaos, rebuild relationships, and rise from despair to resilience.

Bio and mission statement

Author Annie Highwater is an Author, Recovery Writer, Podcast Host, Speaker, Family Advocate and a Recovery Enthusiast. She is a decades long researcher of Behavioral Science with particular interests in family pathology and concepts of dysfunction, addiction, alcoholism and conflict. In 2016, Annie published her first book, the memoir, “Unhooked: A Mother’s Story of Unhitching from the Roller Coaster of Her Son’s Addiction.” Her story is especially relevant in helping us all understand the personal challenges facing the affected parents and family members, and how family dynamics both help and hinder the recovery process. Annie’s second book “Unbroken, Navigating the Madness of Family Dysfunction, Alcoholism and Addiction” was published in 2018. She has written a chapter for a book about the epidemic in Ohio, that The Ohio State University published in 2019. Annie is a regular contributor to Allies in Recovery, has been trained in the C.R.A.F.T Method and works in her community for a large Healthcare Organization as a Recovery Support Specialist.

Annie resides in Columbus, Ohio and enjoys writing, spending time with family, friends and support groups, the great outdoors and visiting her son in Scottsdale, Arizona as often as possible.

Mission Statement:

There are more people affected by addiction than addicted. My mission is to promote healthy dialogue and to offer support, information and hope to the stressed out, affected family, partners and friends (the “entourage”) of those in the grips of addiction, alcoholism and SUD.

I believe no one should have to go through it alone.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Hitting a “rock bottom” of despair just before becoming a published Author

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My entire life (personal AND professional) changed as a result of working on my own recovery (as affected family), writing about it and sharing it publicly. Building a morning routine in the early days of this…which is now a very strong process, was foundational to all of it. This all came together at the same time.

Contact Info:

• Website: Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2NAVrA27R8Qxg0foDq2FjC
• Instagram: MindyAnneWrites
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnieUnhooked/
• Other: Published books:

  Unhooked: https://www.amazon.com/Unhooked-Mothers-Unhitching-Coaster-Addiction/dp/1942497210/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.jg8GVijEu23GWedL-B7Jfg.zTLAkKg6WN49Q4b-bkdvtnFpFOBgPjYFp0-e3EHQMzw&dib_tag=se&keywords=unhooked+annie+highwater&qid=1762107499&sr=8-1

  Unbroken:

Image Credits

Unhooked, Six Degrees Publishing Group; Unbroken, Freedom Fox Press