Voices for Wellness with Samara & Lila

Hi Everyone,

our names are Samara and Lila, and we are Cal Poly SLO sociology graduates passionate about mental health, addiction education, and social justice.

Samara shares what growing up around loved ones with addiction taught about it being a disease, and why recovery is rarely a straight line.

A first drink at 14, and a look at how family, community and social media teach us that alcohol is the key to having fun.

As graduation nears, a look at how college makes heavy drinking feel normal, and the expectation to simply 'clean up' once it's over.

Why do we reach for our phones the moment things get hard? On quitting social media and learning to sit with discomfort instead of scrolling past it.

Knowing when discomfort needs more than willpower: rethinking 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' and why asking for help is a strength.

What the Rat Park experiment says about addiction, and why connection to the people around us may be one of our strongest protections.