Summit County residents engaged in a community conversation about navigating substance use in Colorado’s resort towns during the annual Longevity Project event hosted Wednesday, March 27, by Summit Daily News.

Almost everyone in the audience at the Silverthorne Pavillion raised their hand that evening when keynote speaker Chad Weller asked, “How many out there have been impacted from substance abuse, drugs or alcohol? Or are currently being impacted?”

The Longevity Project is a monthslong effort by Summit Daily News to educate readers about what it takes to live a long, fulfilling life in the High Country. This year’s four-part series focused on substance use, exploring the culture around drugs and alcohol in Colorado mountain towns, the local behavioral health landscape, new approaches to fostering sobriety in the criminal justice system and building a supportive community.

Weller capped the Longevity Project’s concluding event Wednesday by sharing his personal story of substance use, addiction and suicide attempts. His raw and honest story discussed his path to recovery as well as tips to help friends and family members support their loved ones.

“I was an addict for over 14 years, and I struggled quite a bit,” Weller said. “I didn’t know how to get help. I didn’t know how to love myself. I didn’t even know how to acknowledge I had a problem.”

Despite being a top model for famous designers, traveling around the world and making six- to seven-figure margins from buying and selling businesses, Weller said he felt absolutely empty and alone. 

Working in the nightlife industry, Weller said he was partying all the time and became addicted to drugs and alcohol. After attempting to take his own life twice and suffering multiple drug overdoses, Weller hit his breaking point when he rammed his car into a 50-foot brick wall while intoxicated behind the wheel. March 13, 2009, was the pivotal day when everything changed.

“That’s when I asked for help,” Weller said. “I went to meetings. I got a psychiatrist. I got a therapist, and I hired a life coach. In 2010, I found ultramarathons, which is anything over a marathon, so 50 kilometers, 50 milers, 100 kilometer and 100 mile races.”

While recovering from addiction, Weller became a professional ultramarathoner, giving him a platform to share his story. Now, he works as a high-performance life coach, helping to motivate others to be their best selves.

Those who are recovering addiction or substance use disorders have to be “patient with change,” Weller said. Change takes perseverance and resilience and usually happens in small baby steps rather than all at once, he said.

Weller, who is now 15 years sober, also discussed “the power of planning” and how important habits are to making gradual change over time. Planning just one day at a time can help create structure, he said.

Multiple times a day — including anytime he is feeling upset, disconnected or like he wants to grab a drink — Weller said he repeats an exercise he calls “coming home.” He said the exercise helps bring him out of his subconscious thoughts back into reality so he can reconnect with himself and realize that he is safe.

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Weller had the audience complete the exercise with him. He told people to hold the unpleasant thought in their heads for three to five seconds before inhaling through their nose and exhaling any unpleasant thoughts.

Then he had everyone repeat a phrase with him, “I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, and I have everything I need.”

Earlier in the evening, Summit Daily editor Andrew Maciejewski moderated a panel discussion with community leaders about how residents can support those with substance use issues and connect with local resources.

The discussion included Summit County resident Eric Turner, who overcame his struggles with substance use; Hillary Sunderland, a clinician and licensed addiction counselor; and Lt. Daric Gutzwiller, who oversees the System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team program, or SMART, at the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

Sunderland responded to a question from Maciejewski about how residents can talk to their loved ones who have an issue with substances. 

Behavioral issues related to substances can be nuanced, and each case is different, Sunderland said. People have to want to change before they can truly tackle a substance-use issue, but telling a loved one about how their substance use issue impacts you and providing loving support can go a long way, she said.

“Please keep in mind, you cannot control the outcome. You cannot control or make somebody do something,” Sunderland said. “But you can have influence. And with love and kindness and attachment and empathy that goes a long way for your influence.”

Gutzwiller recalled the county’s long struggles with mental health and substance use, including the region’s high suicide rates. He said the founding of the SMART program, which sends licensed clinicians to respond to mental health calls alongside sheriff’s deputies, in 2020 has shifted how law enforcement handles calls involving behavioral health.

“Anytime there’s a mental health nexus and a public safety nexus, they can call us, and we’ll dispatch a team right to their home,” Gutzwiller said of SMART. “And then we’ll follow up with them and work with them for days, weeks, months or years after any event to try to help people in any way shape or form as long as they have a valid mental health goal.”

Sponsors of the Longevity Project included Epic Wellness, Mile High Behavioral Health, BGV Gives, Summit County Public Health, Summit Community Care Clinic, Recovery Resources, Alpine Bank and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. 

Some of those local organizations, along with Alcoholics Anonymous, had tables at the event, handing out literature about addiction and mental health resources as well as harm reduction tools like the opioid overdose antidote naloxone and fentanyl test strips.

During the panel, Turner spoke about the importance of having community discussions about substance use to help dispel the stigma around the subject that can prevent people from getting help.

“The main thing we can all do to reduce the stigma is educate. Educate ourselves and educate others that we know and let them know what’s actually going on,” Turner said. “Because the main problem with the stigma is that people look at this as a character flaw, which it’s not. Some of the smartest and most determined people I know are in recovery.”