Growth Now Movement with Justin Schenck
Description
What do you do when someone you love is struggling with addiction, mental illness, or repeated treatment failures, and nothing you've tried seems to be working?
In this episode of The Growth Now Movement, I sit down with Mark Astor, co-founder of a law firm that helps families navigate some of the most difficult situations imaginable when an adult child is struggling with substance use, mental illness, and the cycle of crisis that can come with it.
Mark's journey into this work wasn't a straight line. He began his legal career as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County in the 1990s, but after seeing the same people cycle through the justice system again and again, he began questioning whether a punishment-first approach was actually helping people change.
After moving into defense work, navigating career setbacks, and learning some difficult lessons along the way, a pivotal mentorship helped Mark see the connection between personal growth, business development, and building a career around meaningful impact.
In 2016, Mark and his wife started their firm with a different approach: combining legal strategies with clinical services and law enforcement collaboration to help families find a path forward when traditional approaches haven't worked.
We talk about the realities families face when an adult child is struggling, why denial can make it so difficult for someone to recognize they need help, and how conditions such as anosognosia can affect a person's awareness of their own illness.
Mark also explains why families need to move away from blame and toward responsibility, why recovery is a long-term process rather than a quick fix, and how family participation can play an important role in the journey.
We get into the importance of the people you surround yourself with, the lessons Mark has learned while growing his firm to a team of around 15 people, and how his definition of success has evolved throughout his career.
For Mark, success is circular. As you grow, you create the capacity to help more people, and that impact becomes part of what drives you to keep growing.
This is a conversation about addiction, recovery, family, leadership, resilience, and what it means to keep searching for solutions when the stakes couldn't be higher.
In this episode, we discuss:
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Why Mark moved away from a punishment-first approach to the justice system
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Finding purpose after career setbacks
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Building a law firm with his wife from the ground up
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How legal strategies can support families facing addiction and mental illness
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Common misconceptions about addiction and recovery
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Understanding denial and anosognosia
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Moving from blame toward responsibility
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Why recovery requires long-term commitment
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The role families can play in supporting recovery
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Why your environment and relationships matter
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Building a team around a mission that matters
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Lessons from difficult cases and personal growth
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Defining success through service and impact
If you or someone you love is navigating a difficult situation, this conversation is a reminder that you don't have to figure everything out alone, and that finding a way forward may require a different approach than the one you've tried before.
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