Today's conversation with Serena Palmer goes straight to the heart of addiction, ADHD, success and collapse, and the hidden world of high-achieving professionals who are fighting battles no one can see. If you’ve ever wondered how someone can lead global teams, excel in a corporate role, appear entirely in control, and still be unravelling behind the scenes, this episode will speak to you.

We explore late ADHD diagnosis, the link between neurodiversity and alcohol misuse. Behind the titles, she was privately battling a late ADHD diagnosis, escalating drinking, and cycles of alcoholic psychosis. Today she’s 2 years sober, deeply grounded in the work of recovery, and helping individuals and organisations understand neurodiversity, addiction, and human potential in a far more honest way.

We walk through the earlier years too: the roots of self-medication, the dopamine-seeking patterns that began with sugar and the early risk-taking. Serena explains how ADHD can push high performers into dangerous coping mechanisms and why adults diagnosed later in life are statistically far more vulnerable to addiction. Here’s the reality: adults with ADHD are three times more likely to develop addiction, and if they’re diagnosed later in life, up to 60% are already battling substance issues. Among high achievers, 1 in 10 hides an addiction behind their success and around 1 in 4 will battle it at some point in their lives.

We also discuss the end of an eighteen-year relationship, the impact of redundancy, the pressures of corporate travel, and the ways high achievers can hide addiction in plain sight. Serena brings clarity to how these dynamics fuel dependence and why some of the most capable, driven people can find themselves on the edge without ever realising how far they’ve fallen.

Before we close, Serena shares clear, practical advice for anyone trying to stay clean and sober through Christmas and offers insight for anyone who looks successful on the outside but feels like they’re collapsing internally. This is a conversation about reality, responsibility, hope and the possibility of change—delivered with truth, depth and humanity.

If you’ve ever battled addiction, questioned your relationship with alcohol, lived with ADHD, or struggled to square your internal world with the life people assume you’re living, this episode will stay with you.

Oliver is an ambassador for Alcohol Change UK and you can access support here - https://tinyurl.com/5dt5773e

Thank you to Gavin Sisters for sponsoring this episode! Visit -

www.gavinsisters.co.uk

and use promo code SCHOOLOFROCKBOTTOM for 10% off!

Podcasting is an expensive passion. To help me keep going, I'd really appreciate it if you could buy me a coffee, thank you!

https://buymeacoffee.com/olivermason1

Or via PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/olivermason1paypal

Topics -

0:00 Trailer & Intro

4:00 A rock bottom moment

10:30 Would you rewrite history if you could?

14:00 Why Serena needed pain to stop drinking

15:00 Enabling, toxic relationships & masking

18:30 Self medicating undiagnosed ADHD

22:00 Emotional dysregulation & RSD

26:00 Nicotine, smoking and ADHD

28:00 Daydreaming and fantasy

31:30 Workaholism?

33:00 Rehab and coming out of denial

39:00 Getting excited about recovery

41:50 Using hyperfocus in recovery

44:30 Cocaine Anonymous

48:20 Sponsor

49:20 Are you born with ADHD?

50:20 How addiction and ADHD interact

53:30 Tips to stay sober at Xmas

Follow Serena

Website -

https://www.serena.consulting

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thereal_hrcoach

STRAIGHT OUTTA REHAB

https://amzn.eu/d/fmvl89U

MY TWO BRAINS AND ME

https://amzn.eu/d/6p88BoM

Follow Oliver

IG - https://tinyurl.com/2vt29sjv

FB - https://tinyurl.com/34cwz59r

TikTok - https://tinyurl.com/ujw4vxn9

LinkedIn - https://tinyurl.com/yuemhnd7

Threads - https://tinyurl.com/yk7vdeah

X - https://tinyurl.com/3u5mnpds

Also WATCH here

YouTube - https://tinyurl.com/229ndvfk

#AddictionRecovery

#AlcoholFree

#SobrietyJourney

In this next quick thought, I revisit a moment with Rupert Hill as we explore one of the most misunderstood drivers of alcohol dependence: the moment your brain learns that “hair of the dog” removes discomfort. It feels harmless, even cultural, but for many it is the point where drinking shifts from enjoyment to compulsion. In this clip, we break down how the cycle begins, why it escalates so quickly, and how a seemingly small decision can shape years of someone’s life. If you’ve ever questioned your relationship with alcohol, this conversation will give you clarity.

We discuss the biology behind withdrawal, the deceptive logic of “just one to take the edge off,” and the moment when drinking stops being about feeling good and becomes about trying to feel normal. We look at how routine behaviour becomes dependence, how high-functioning drinkers hide it in plain sight, and how life slowly reorganises itself around the next drink. This is a candid exploration of compulsion, secrecy and the mental burden of planning a day around alcohol.

You will also hear how everyday situations become logistical challenges when you cannot be away from a drink, why mornings become the most dangerous time, and how the brain’s survival instincts can quietly drive destructive habits. It is an honest account of progression, denial and the tipping points people rarely talk about.

Listen or watch THE FULL EPISODE

Spotify - https://bit.ly/3zqqR2J

YouTube - https://bit.ly/45UHYWv

Apple - https://apple.co/3PajZvQ

About the “THOUGHT” series -

Every other Monday at 5 PM, I’ll bring you a quick ‘thought’—a powerful moment from previous episodes designed to kickstart your week with insight, motivation, and connection. These shorter clips help us stay connected as a community, while every other Tuesday delivers a full, brand-new episode with fresh stories and lessons.

For anyone struggling with these topics Rupert suggests reading Alcohol Explained by William Porter.

Oliver is an ambassador for Alcohol Change UK and you can access support here - https://tinyurl.com/5dt5773e

Podcasting is an expensive passion. To help me keep going, I'd really appreciate it if you could buy me a coffee, thank you!

https://buymeacoffee.com/olivermason1

Or via PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/olivermason1paypal

Follow Rupert

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rupertsinclairhill

Twitter/X - https://x.com/RupertHill

Follow Oliver

Instagram - https://tinyurl.com/2vt29sjv

Facebook - https://tinyurl.com/34cwz59r

TikTok - https://tinyurl.com/ujw4vxn9

LinkedIn - https://tinyurl.com/yuemhnd7

Threads - https://tinyurl.com/yk7vdeah

X - https://tinyurl.com/3u5mnpds

#functioningalcoholic

#recovery

#alcoholaddiction

There are some stories that force you to rethink everything you believe about addiction. This is one of them.

Terry Devine was five years old when a teacher humiliated him in front of a class — a single moment that buried him in shame so deep he carried it for decades. That shame became the soil everything else grew from: the drinking, the chaos, the emotional collapse, and eventually heroin. Not because he wanted to get high, but because heroin felt like a parent he never had. Warm. Safe. Comforting. Until it wasn’t.

In this conversation, Terry reveals the parts of addiction that almost never make it into public view. The night he pushed a burning poker into his own arm. The moment heroin stopped working and withdrawal hit with a force that made death feel easier. The sickening realisation that he was no longer chasing pleasure — only running from pain. And the brutal truth that there are two kinds of rock bottom: the physical one everyone imagines, and a far more dangerous spiritual one that no one can see coming.

Terry talks openly about how undiagnosed ADHD shaped everything: the impulsivity, the emotional intensity, the constant sense of being wrong in his own skin. He explains why he believes ADHD is one of the most overlooked drivers of early substance use, and how it became the invisible gateway that made heroin feel inevitable.

What Terry describes here is the real machinery of addiction: the obsession that silences logic, the withdrawals that feel like your insides are being torn out, the distortion of identity, and the terrifying moment when a person realises they’ve crossed a line they can’t uncross. He explains how shame becomes a worldview, how trauma rewrites the brain, and how addiction convinces you that you are beyond saving long before anyone else realises you're in trouble.

And then, somehow, he rebuilt a life and you'll find out exactly how he did it. Terry met the love of his life in recovery and learn how they both stayed sober during tragedy, why the 12 steps having only small success rate is false, why and how cross addiction happens, how heroin lead him to alcohol and what it really means to be clean and sober.

More on Terry -

Today, he’s a lecturer in forensic science at the University of the West of England, a clinical addiction hypnotherapist, a recovery coach, and the founder of Devine Recovery Solutions. He’s dedicated to helping others break free from addiction.

Terry is also a committed fundraiser in memory of his son, climbing mountains and volcanoes across the world — from Ecuador to Kilimanjaro. He’s now approaching 13 yrs clean and sober.

Oliver is an ambassador for Alcohol Change UK - support here: https://tinyurl.com/5dt5773e

Thank you to Gavin Sisters for sponsoring this episode!

www.gavinsisters.co.uk

and use promo code SCHOOLOFROCKBOTTOM for 10% off!

Podcasting is an expensive passion. To help me keep going, I'd really appreciate it if you could buy me a coffee, thank you!

https://buymeacoffee.com/olivermason1

PayPal - https://www.paypal.me/olivermason1paypal

Topics -

0:00 Trailer & Intro

4:40 A rock bottom moment

9:30 Shame, not feeling good enough and heroin

14:35 If drugs are the answer what is the question?

15:00 ADHD was the gateway drug

18:10 Alcohol to heroin was fast

21:30 Heroin withdrawal

25:15 Heroin addiction leads to stealing

27:00 Addiction Vs dependency

28:40 Cross addiction & relapse

32:20 Do you have to give up all drugs?

33:20 How did Terry get clean and sober?

37:30 12 Steps has a 5% success rate?

41:30 Staying sober during tragedy

48:30 Embracing vulnerability & courage

50:20 Sponsor

51:20 Can you have a relationship early in recovery?

Follow Terry

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/terry__devine

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@terry_devine

Follow Oliver

https://linktr.ee/olivermason

YouTube - https://tinyurl.com/5amc8jtt

Spotify - https://spoti.fi/3Z0Pr1r

Apple - https://tinyurl.com/y3n2chk3

#AddictionRecovery

#HeroinSurvivor

#MentalHealthAwareness