KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Substance abuse and addiction can feel impossible to recover from. However, an instructor said that by doing yoga he found a way through recovery. Now, he is working to help others find a way out of addiction.
"I couldn't have two beers, I had to have 12 beers. I couldn't have a glass, I had to have the whole bottle," said Zak Stinnett. "It's internal pain. It's physical pain."
He said he started drinking heavily after his wife died and was addicted to alcohol for around 20 years. He said he started practicing yoga and found a way to recover from addiction.
"I'm healthier, eat better, sleep better. I'm physically in better shape, I lost 50 pounds after I quit drinking," he said. "Yoga poses can be emotionally releasing to people too, especially in recovery, who have trauma in their bodies because we hold our issues."
He said classes like "Sober Yoga" help people with substance abuse find another avenue away from drugs and alcohol, helping them find relief from pain and trauma that may lead them to addiction.
The program was created by Heather Hutcheson, who recovered from addiction herself. It is aimed at helping people with all types of addiction. Hutcheson helped people like Stinnett in his sobriety journey.
Through yoga, Stinnett said people in recovery can regain control and ownership of themselves.
Now, he's helping other people find recovery — showing them ways yoga can help.
"Instead of going to the bottle or the pipe, they go to a class. They let that trigger mechanism go in that class, through movements," he said. "Yoga helped save me."
Sober Yoga is available for free every Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Metro Drug Coalition The Gateway. Classes for Sober Yoga also happen on Friday nights at 7 p.m. at Renegade Yoga. Yoga classes at Renegade Yoga are donation-based and funds help supply mats for people in recovery.
According to the Knox County Attorney General's Office, almost 400 people have died due to a suspected drug overdose so far this year in Knox County — down compared to the same time last year.