Garret Biss

Garret Biss Veteran Mental Health • Recovery • Resilience • Continuing Education & Professional Training The Site and the Content are provided on an “as is” basis.

I help people who have struggled with addictive substances or bahavoirs to move beyond the lingering effects of past addictions and experience total freedom to thrive in their recovery. My mission is to help others eradicate unnecessary pain and suffering in their lives so they can experience happier, more fulfilling, and more successful life-experiences. As human potential trainer, award-winning

author, and recovery mindset coach, my work aims to educate, empower, and inspire my audience toward the positive and rewarding lives they deserve. Disclaimer - I, Garret Biss, am not a medical or licenced mental health professional. Nothing offered by me is intended to treat, diagnose, or cure any mental health or medical condition. Please know that anything I provide on this or other sites is for informational or educational purposes only. The contents of the this page and the A Life Unchained Facebook Group, such as text, graphics, videos, comments, subtitles, commentary, images, and other material contained on the Channel Page (“Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or watched on this page or consumed on any other site owned or operated by Garret Biss or Diamond Mind LLC. If you think you may have a medical or mental health emergency, call your doctor or 911 or local emergency number immediately. Niether Garret Biss nor Diamond Mind recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the this Channel or other Site. Reliance on any information provided by Garret Biss, Diamond Mind LLC, Diamond Mind LLC employees, others appearing on the Site at the invitation of Garret Biss, or other visitors to the Site is solely at your own risk.

Recovery and support systems often measure what has stopped.Fewer crises. Less harmful behavior. Fewer missed appointmen...
09/11/2026

Recovery and support systems often measure what has stopped.

Fewer crises. Less harmful behavior. Fewer missed appointments. No new charges. Reduced symptoms.

Those outcomes matter.

But they do not tell us everything about the life taking shape underneath them.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴?

Is the person developing healthier relationships?
Greater agency?
A more stable sense of identity?
A place to belong?
A reason to protect the progress they have made?

Movement 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 from harm is important.

Sustainable recovery also needs movement 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 something:

Connection. Contribution. Purpose. Self-respect.
A positive future the person can begin to imagine themselves creating.

The absence of a crisis is worth celebrating.

𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄.

I’m heading to Greensboro for NCATOD, where I’ll present “Beyond Military Service: Promoting Post-Traumatic Growth in Ve...
09/10/2026

I’m heading to Greensboro for NCATOD, where I’ll present “Beyond Military Service: Promoting Post-Traumatic Growth in Veterans Recovering from OUD/SUD.”

This conversation is not about romanticizing trauma. It is about recognizing that adversity does not have to define the rest of someone’s story. We'll explore practical ways to support resilience, meaning, and recovery.

Event details: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-ncatod-conference-best-practices-in-opioid-treatment-tickets-1989804818777

If you’re attending NCATOD, please find me and say hello.

Removing weeds can protect a garden.It does not tell us what the garden is meant to become.Much of treatment and recover...
09/09/2026

Removing weeds can protect a garden.

It does not tell us what the garden is meant to become.

Much of treatment and recovery understandably begins with what needs to stop: the crisis, the harmful behavior, the symptoms, the immediate threat.

Positive psychology adds another set of questions without replacing that work:

What strengths can be cultivated?

Which relationships support well-being?

Where can a person experience engagement, meaning, achievement, contribution, or joy?

Reducing what causes harm is important.

Human flourishing also requires planting and tending the conditions that help life grow.

Conference season is underway, and I already have four North Carolina stops ahead this fall.📍 September 11 — NCATOD | Gr...
09/08/2026

Conference season is underway, and I already have four North Carolina stops ahead this fall.

📍 September 11 — NCATOD | Greensboro
📍 September 15 — ICGH Recovery Summit | Gastonia
📍 October 2 — Cape Fear Addictions Conference | Wilmington
📍 October 23 — RecoveryTogether ENC | Kinston

Each event serves a different community, but the conversations share an important thread: how connection, resilience, recovery, meaning, and purpose help people move forward through challenge and change.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to these conversations and spend time with the professionals and communities doing this work across North Carolina.

Will you be at one of these events? Please come say hello or send me a message. I’d be glad to connect.

09/08/2026

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

When I first gave my TEDx talk, I wanted to put language to something I hadn’t understood during my own transition from military service.

We all have fundamental human needs for connection, authenticity, a positive sense of identity, and meaning.

Military service often meets these needs in a profound way. And when we leave, we don’t lose those needs, just the way we've come to meet them.

We can lose the people, roles, structure, and sense of purpose that service provided.

That loss often leaves a void that’s difficult to explain.

At first, I simply wanted transitioning service members to understand where that feeling might be coming from.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.

But over time, I’ve realized this conversation reaches far beyond transition programs or post-9/11 veterans.

After one presentation, a Vietnam veteran told me he had been struggling with something internally for decades and for the first time, he finally had language for what he had been experiencing.

That moment stayed with me.

Different generations. Different wars. Different experiences.

But the same disruption to human needs underneath the transition is remarkably similar.

Understanding this loss gives us a better place to begin the conversation.

Watch the full conversation with Mr. Wh***ey:

https://youtu.be/5k-LrcVv84M?si=bDQJ2TEIpDoncD9t

Click here to watch my TEDx Talk:

https://youtu.be/xT00fqYHHp8?si=EgzWhnx1RCkkKzkZ

We often hear stories as if struggle ends and suddenly growth begins.Real life is rarely that direct.A person can still ...
09/07/2026

We often hear stories as if struggle ends and suddenly growth begins.

Real life is rarely that direct.

A person can still grieve what happened and recognize new strength.

They can continue experiencing fear while becoming more courageous.

They can carry pain and build a meaningful life that is no longer organized entirely around avoiding that pain.

Growth does not prove the wound was good or necessary. It does not erase distress, and it should never become an expectation placed on someone who is suffering.

It simply leaves room for a fuller truth:

Something difficult may have changed me in painful ways; and I may still be developing capacities, relationships, priorities, or purpose through the work of responding to it.

I have spent more time than I would like to admit waiting for certainty.Waiting to know exactly how something would unfo...
09/04/2026

I have spent more time than I would like to admit waiting for certainty.

Waiting to know exactly how something would unfold. Waiting for the complete plan.

Waiting for enough confidence to guarantee I would not make the wrong move.

But major transitions rarely offer that kind of clarity.

Sometimes all we have is a direction:
- the values we refuse to abandon;
- the people we can be honest with;
- the contribution that still feels meaningful;
- the next step that feels aligned, even if the destination remains unclear.

Certainty may never arrive before movement begins.

Fortunately, we do not always need a complete map.

Sometimes we just need enough orientation to take the next step.

Leaving military service does not erase the discipline, competence, loyalty, adaptability, or capacity for responsibilit...
09/02/2026

Leaving military service does not erase the discipline, competence, loyalty, adaptability, or capacity for responsibility developed there.

But transition can remove the setting that made those strengths visible and useful.

Without the familiar mission, team, standards, and feedback, a person may begin wondering whether the best parts of themselves disappeared with the role.

Often, the deeper task is translation.

Where does that leadership belong now?

What civilian mission deserves that level of commitment?

Which relationships can recognize the person, not only the résumé?

A strength can become difficult to access when it loses its context.

That does not mean it is gone. It may be waiting for a new place to serve.

09/01/2026

Often, the work we do to help others begins with work we had to do for ourselves.

For me, part of that process was realizing that connection doesn’t only happen between people.

It also happens within us.

As I began reconnecting with my own worth, value, and sense of purpose, the internal void I had been carrying began to close.

The more connected I became with myself, the more available I became for deeper, healthier connections with other people.

That experience still shapes the work I do today.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to help others navigate their own challenges, but I’ve also learned that serving, coaching, and connecting with others continues to reinforce many of the same things that helped me find my way forward.

Maybe healing and helping aren’t always two separate journeys.

Sometimes they continue to shape each other.

Military service can develop discipline, vigilance, directness, leadership, loyalty, and attention to detail.After trans...
08/31/2026

Military service can develop discipline, vigilance, directness, leadership, loyalty, and attention to detail.

After transition, some of those same qualities may suddenly feel excessive, misunderstood, or difficult to translate.

That does not necessarily mean the strength is gone or that it has become a "defect."

It may mean the person has lost the environment, mission, or relationships that once gave the strength direction.

One part of transition is learning how to redeploy what is still valuable:

● vigilance into preparation;
● intensity into commitment;
● directness into clear communication;
● mission focus into meaningful civilian contribution.

Sometimes people do not need to become less of who they were.

They need a new context in which their strengths can become useful again.

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