Timestamp Notes 00:00 – Good Morning Dopey / Dopey Wednesday intro song. 01:14 – Dave opens the show and announces the unofficial Dopey theme song challenge. 02:20 – Film Festival is two days away; Dave encourages people to come if they still can. 02:55 – Father’s Day rant: dads texting other dads “Happy Father’s Day.” 04:20 – Dave calls his father Alan live for Father’s Day. 05:15 – Alan weighs in on masculinity, texting, and modern fatherhood. 08:30 – Dave and Alan discuss the Knicks winning the championship. 10:25 – “Post-acute Knicks withdrawal” and Dave compares fans rewatching clips to “licking the bag.” 12:35 – Knicks parade talk, Mamdani speech, Dolan, and school bus chaos conspiracy jokes. 16:10 – Knicks roster talk: Robinson, Diowara, Shamet, Clarkson, second apron. 17:45 – Alan talks about coming to the Dopey Film Festival and bringing a crew. 19:25 – Dave explains Film Festival schedule: food, Mountainside intro, films, comedians, panel, Q&A. 20:00 – Patreon comments from Todd’s sister Allie episode. 20:35 – Listener asks why Dave debated putting out the Allie episode. 21:00 – Comments about Todd, Linda, Maggie the pit bull, and dreams about Todd. 22:20 – Spotify comments about Todd’s family, the apartment, and grieving. 23:10 – Dave describes Todd’s tiny Upper East Side studio, Murphy bed, bong hits, 720, and toaster oven food. 24:35 – Dopey socks explanation: send a voicemail/email or join $15 Patreon. 25:00 – Dave introduces the live YouTube/Workit Health event with Amy Dresner. Amy Dresner / Workit Health Interview 25:45 – Max from Workit Health introduces the event and Workit’s telehealth addiction care. 27:05 – Max introduces Dave, Dopey, Amy Dresner, My Fair Junkie, and recovery storytelling. 29:30 – Dave corrects the download number: 23 million, not 10 million. 30:15 – Dave and Amy remember her first Dopey appearance with Chris. 31:30 – Todd came over during Amy’s first interview; later nodded out after using heroin. 33:00 – Amy talks about her next book proposal: long-term recovery when life still falls apart. 34:35 – Amy describes losing her father, mother, and cat, epilepsy returning, losing work/housing, and staying sober. 35:35 – Amy talks suicidal thoughts, medication changes, and checking herself into the psych ward. 37:15 – Amy’s psych ward intake: false promises of good food, coffee, and comfort. 38:15 – Amy gets a crush on a young nurse and meets seriously mentally ill patients. 39:50 – Amy as “teacher’s pet” in psych ward groups. 40:40 – Entering the psych ward with ten years sober. 41:30 – Amy takes notes because the whole thing is material. 42:25 – Rexulti, antipsychotics, medication issues, and sleeping all day. 43:30 – Amy admits she was the oldest and most out-of-control person there. 44:20 – Amy talks grief, rage, Colonel Puff, her mother, and losing too much at once. 45:25 – Amy explains the vagus nerve stimulator for epilepsy. 46:20 – Battery in the chest, choking fetish joke, and doctors not knowing what to do with her. 47:15 – Amy learns her epilepsy may not have been self-inflicted by drug use. 48:20 – Meth, coke, seizures, and why Amy shot coke but not meth. 49:05 – Classic Amy story: wearing a bike helmet while shooting coke for harm reduction. 50:45 – Dave and Amy discuss harm reduction, 12-step, MAT, and staying alive. 53:10 – Amy says addiction is not a moral issue and harm reduction keeps people alive. 54:35 – Dave talks about methadone, projection, and assuming everyone on MAT was also using. 56:20 – Amy’s UCLA epilepsy unit stay: tied to the bed, electrodes, seizure monitoring. 58:45 – Amy has multiple grand mal seizures in the hospital. 01:00:30 – Doctors restart her VNS, try Depakote, and Amy pukes all night. 01:02:00 – Isolation in Lake Hollywood, inability to drive, social anxiety, and trying to write the book. 01:03:25 – Amy’s agent pushes for a stronger proposal and more vivid writing. 01:04:35 – Writing as survival: “If you can make it into a story, you can live through it.” 01:05:35 – Amy says she blew her best stories in My Fair Junkie. 01:06:20 – Dave and Amy talk about the importance of a second book about sobriety when life stays hard. 01:07:15 – Depression, dual diagnosis, epilepsy medication, and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs. 01:09:30 – Amy has a seizure while running a meeting and gets taken off the schedule. 01:10:25 – Dopeywood, epilepsy fear, and Amy winning the Stash Word contest. 01:11:00 – Dave asks how Amy gets through daily life with isolation and illness. 01:13:00 – Amy talks writing, money, body dysmorphia, and doing video work. 01:14:30 – Live chat begins; Dopey Nation and Workit Health audience join in. 01:15:30 – Question: do young people think addiction is normal? 01:16:30 – Amy talks isolation, suicidal thinking, and needing people to come over. 01:18:30 – Amy says suicidal thoughts pass and recommends therapy, medication, sleep, and support. 01:20:20 – Question about early recovery, Suboxone, drinking, and a breakup. 01:21:00 – Dave recommends meetings, connection, prayer, hobbies, walks, and getting out of your head. 01:22:00 – Question about boundaries; Amy jokes she has none. 01:23:20 – Question: what if you feel like no one can connect with you? 01:24:00 – Dave says there is definitely some weirdo out there who will connect with you. 01:25:00 – Meetings, Dopey Zoom, Workit meetings, and trying something instead of nothing. 01:26:00 – Amy explains action changing feelings and building new neural pathways. 01:26:50 – Question: how do you forgive yourself after decades of addiction? 01:27:15 – Amy talks felony domestic violence, shame, forgiving herself, and having her own back. 01:30:00 – Dave talks changing the channel in your brain through action, hobbies, TV, and recovery. 01:31:30 – Dave invites people onto the Knicks bandwagon as a form of community and joy. 01:32:30 – Question about writing: Amy recommends coaching, outlining, proposals, agents, and writing before editing. 01:35:00 – Audience member says they are homeless and desperate for help. 01:35:30 – Amy and Dave urge them to keep asking for help, go to meetings, use libraries, and tell people the truth. 01:39:20 – Question about humor in recovery and whether laughing glamorizes addiction. 01:40:00 – Dave says humor is his survival mode and release valve. 01:41:30 – Amy says there is a line between dark humor and glamorizing addiction. 01:43:00 – Amy talks not comparing herself to others and staying in the present. 01:44:45 – Max closes the live event and calls Dave and Amy “universal recovery parents.” 01:45:30 – Amy reflects on hiding out, wanting to be honest again, and coming back. 01:46:30 – Roxanne Colelo / Dopey stoner legend shoutout. 01:47:30 – Amy plugs My Fair Junkie and talks about money, disability, and trying to survive. 01:49:20 – Amy shows Bucky the rescue cat. 01:50:00 – Dave and Amy thank Workit Health and promote the Film Festival. 01:52:50 – Dave wraps the episode, plugs Patreon, treatment help, Safe Spot, CustomStickers.com, and signs off.

Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

Dave & Chris

Tales From the Psych Ward with Amy Dresner - Epilepsy, Grief, Recovery & Staying Alive When Sobriety Still Sucks

JUN 24, 2026118 MIN
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

Tales From the Psych Ward with Amy Dresner - Epilepsy, Grief, Recovery & Staying Alive When Sobriety Still Sucks

JUN 24, 2026118 MIN

Description

FILM FEST TIX: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905 PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast workithealth.com/dopey This week on Dopey Wednesday,! We begin with a Father’s Day rant about dads texting each other, calls his father Alan live on the show, argues about masculinity, the Knicks championship, post-Knicks withdrawal, the Dopey Film Festival, and whether Seymour is allowed to come. Dave also reads Patreon and Spotify comments about Todd’s sister Allie, Todd’s apartment, Dopey socks, and listener reactions. Then the episode shifts into a live Workit Health/Dopey event with the great Amy “Dopey Dres” Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie. Amy talks brutally and hilariously about long-term recovery when life does not magically become beautiful: losing her father, mother, and cat in a short period of time, checking herself into a psych ward with ten years sober, surviving suicidal ideation, epilepsy, seizures, brain meds, isolation, grief, and the nightmare comedy of American healthcare. Dave and Amy get into harm reduction, MAT, 12-step recovery, writing through trauma, being funny in the middle of misery, shame, forgiveness, isolation, suicidal thoughts, and why connection is still the only real way out. It’s classic Dopey: funny, dark, honest, messy, sad, useful, and somehow hopeful. All that and more on a weird new dopey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.