In a recent episode of Food Addiction: The Problem and the Solution, podcast host Susan Branscam—a recovered food addict—welcomed Sakina Osborne for a wide-ranging conversation that moved far beyond food. Yes, the episode discusses eating disorders and food addiction, and yes, it introduces the treatment philosophy at Milestones in Recovery in South Florida. But what makes the interview land is that it begins with something more fundamental: the emotional and psychological terrain underneath compulsive behavior.
Sakina’s story is not presented as a neat “I struggled, I overcame” arc. It’s more honest than that. It’s about generational pain, the subtle forms of abandonment that shape identity, the seductive promise of achievement, and the moment a person finally admits, “This isn’t working. I need help.” If you’ve ever wondered why willpower can feel useless against cravings—or why success doesn’t necessarily bring peace—this episode offers a clear, human answer.
Meet the Guest: Sakina Osborne
Susan introduces Sakina Osborne as a therapist at Milestones in Recovery, and Sakina quickly corrects one detail that matters: she is not only a primary therapist—she is the Clinical Director. That small correction sets the tone. She’s warm, but she’s direct. Accurate language matters because accurate language is how people begin to make sense of what they’re living through.
Sakina is a licensed mental health counselor and national certified counselor, trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), a therapy approach often used for trauma. She also founded her own practice, Mind Elevation Therapy LLC, and she brings a background that includes both the U.S. Army and corporate leadership. In other words, she’s been in rooms where feelings are welcomed—and rooms where feelings are treated like a liability.
Milestones in Recovery, one of the podcast’s sponsors, is a residential treatment center specializing in eating disorders and food addiction, with a structured program that combines medical care, therapy, and nutritional guidance. Susan also notes her connection to Marty Lerner (Milestones’ founder/leader) through the Food Addiction Institute, which adds context to why Milestones’ approach is central to the conversation.
“One Generation Removed From Slavery”: Why Sakina Starts There
When Susan asks about Sakina’s childhood, Sakina begins with a line that stops the listener: she describes herself as one generation removed from slavery. She explains that she starts there because the psychological implications aren’t abstract. They live in families. They show up in patterns. They shape what gets passed down—both in behavior and in biology.
Sakina shares that her great-grandparents were enslaved, and that her grandparents struggled with alcoholism. Her father also battled alcoholism throughout his life and later died after health complications connected to that struggle. She describes a painful tension: her father’s parents were ministers, yet addiction was still part of his story. Two very different worlds—church and chaos—colliding inside one family system.
Her point isn’t to offer a history lesson. It’s to underline that when we talk about addiction, mood disorders, shame, or self-worth, we are rarely talking about one isolated person making “bad choices.” We are often talking about what someone inherited, what someone endured, and what someone never learned because the adults around them were also in survival mode.
The Father Who Shaped Her Life By Not Being There
Sakina speaks about her father’s impact in a way that will sound familiar to many people: he shaped her life not through presence, but through absence. She describes him choosing alcohol over being a stable guide in her life. She also mentions witnessing domestic abuse and emotional abuse during part of her early years.
That absence mattered in ways that weren’t just emotional—they were developmental. Sakina later connects this to identity: if no one is there to reflect your value back to you, you will go looking for it in the world. And when you don’t know your worth, you don’t choose situations that match your value—you choose situations that match your fear.
Suicidal at Seven: When Life Hasn’t Even Started Yet
One of the most gutting moments in the episode is Sakina’s memory of being suicidal at seven years old. She describes being in her bedroom, taking a belt, and wanting to end her life—at an age when most kids are still trying to figure out what they want for breakfast.
Susan asks a natural question: looking back now, can Sakina understand why she felt that way so young?
Sakina’s answer blends environment and biology. She describes isolation—an only child in a single-parent household, with a mother working two jobs and often not home. She also introduces a concept that frames her experience: epigenetics.
Epigenetics: Trauma Doesn’t Always Start With You
Sakina explains epigenetics in plain language: we carry biological markers from our parents and grandparents, and under certain conditions—stress, trauma, instability—those markers can be “activated” in ways that influence mood and mental health.
Her takeaway is stark: at seven years old, she didn’t “know enough about living to want to die,” which forced her to ask where that despair came from. She suggests it may have been a mixture of inherited predisposition and a childhood environment that offered little emotional stability. Crucially, she notes that her mother didn’t have tools to navigate what was happening—not because she didn’t care, but because she too was in survival.
The episode makes an important point here without preaching it: people can love you and still be unequipped to help you. That mismatch is where a lot of childhood shame begins.
Church Every Day and a Mind Full of Shame
Sakina describes another paradox: while she was struggling internally, she was also in church constantly—so much that Susan reacts to the idea of church “seven days a week.” Sakina confirms it: choir, Bible study, intercessory prayer. The structure and values helped her build character, but it didn’t erase the shame or the depression.
That tension—spiritual devotion alongside private despair—appears again later when she talks about recovery. For Sakina, spirituality isn’t a decorative add-on. It’s part of how people rebuild hope when they’ve lost it.
Adolescence: Validation, Unworthiness, and Risk
As Sakina moves into her teenage years, she describes a pattern that is painfully common: seeking validation externally when internal worth isn’t stable. She says she wanted validation “in every way you can imagine,” and that being unsure of herself led to compromising situations.
She later connects this to basic developmental psychology: adolescence is a stage where peer perception becomes intensely powerful, and for someone already struggling with worthiness, that social mirror can become brutal.
Alcohol: Close Enough to Scare Her Straight
Susan asks directly whether Sakina struggled with alcohol herself. Sakina answers with nuance. Alcohol played a role in her life—she drank and “did all the things”—but she also had a strong awareness of what it could do, shaped by a vivid memory of seeing her father drunk with vodka hidden under the sink.
That fear didn’t make her immune, but it gave her a boundary: she could feel the pull without surrendering her life to it. It’s one of the first times in the interview where you can hear Sakina describing an internal “witness”—the part of her that notices danger and wants something better.
Why the Army? Two Options, One Exit
When Sakina graduates high school, she describes feeling like she had two realistic options: get pregnant early like many people around her, or attend community college and remain in the same environment. Neither felt like a path to the bigger life she sensed was possible but couldn’t yet articulate.
Then a recruiter visited her school and offered a deal: two years of service in exchange for college support. Sakina took it. She joined the Army at 17, and the night before boot camp she sat alone in a hotel room feeling terrified and isolated. The next day, the shouting began—and her life changed.
In the Army, Sakina says she learned discipline, perseverance, and teamwork. She even mentions learning to shoot an M16 and discovering she was good at it. More importantly, she learned what it felt like to be part of something structured—something bigger than her pain.
She served her contract and chose not to reenlist, but she frames the experience as something she needed at that time: an external structure strong enough to interrupt the trajectory her environment might have otherwise set.
Pfizer and the Seduction of Achievement
After the military and college, Sakina was recruited into Pfizer, and she describes that early success as intoxicating in a socially acceptable way. Landing the job made her feel like maybe she did have something valuable to offer. She worked hard, advanced quickly, and eventually led a team.
But success came with a trap: performance became identity. If she executed something imperfectly—a presentation, an expectation—she would spiral into emotional collapse, haunted by the fear that people would discover she was unworthy.
Susan names it plainly: achievement as a way to prove worth.
Sakina agrees. She describes feeling like she was succeeding outwardly while internally depressed, purposeless, and empty. Financial stability, she realized, did not automatically create peace. In fact, it could dig the hole deeper because the external “proof” didn’t touch the internal wound.
Postpartum Depression: The Wall That Forced the Question
The turning point arrives after Sakina has her first child. She describes debilitating postpartum depression: low energy, constant emotional pain, isolation, no enthusiasm to get out of bed. It didn’t matter what she tried—vacations, changes, distractions—nothing lasted.
Then comes a strange but powerful story: a friend told Sakina that another friend had a dream about her. In the dream, Sakina was driving fast in darkness toward a brick wall while someone urged her to turn on the headlights. At the last moment, the lights came on and she slammed the brakes.
Sakina says the dream captured her life perfectly. That same week, she made her first appointment for therapy and psychiatric help. She was diagnosed with chronic depression, started medication, and entered therapy. She describes it as the “light turning on”—as if she suddenly saw what life could feel like when the brain isn’t drowning in darkness.
That shift birthed her passion: helping people who suffer in silence, who don’t have language for what’s happening, who have learned how to survive but aren’t thriving.
Medication Helps, But It Doesn’t Rebuild Your Mind
Sakina makes an important clarification that many people learn the hard way: medication can stabilize the chemical imbalance, but it doesn’t automatically change belief systems. A person can feel “better” and still be running the same internal scripts—catastrophizing, abandonment fear, self-contempt, hopelessness.
Those scripts require therapy, awareness, and practice.
“You’re Addicted to Negative Thinking”
One of the most memorable moments in the interview is the statement Sakina’s therapist made during marriage counseling: “You are addicted to negative thinking.”
Sakina is stunned at first. But then she recognizes something crucial: negative thinking can feel true. It can become the default lens, the atmosphere a person lives inside. She mentions a commonly cited idea that most daily thoughts repeat from day to day, which means people often wake up rehearsing yesterday’s fears and calling it reality.
In Sakina’s case, abandonment wounds from her father created hypervigilance in relationships: “Why wouldn’t you leave me?” Even when love was present, she couldn’t fully absorb it because she didn’t trust it.
Her therapist’s line planted a seed: if thinking can be compulsive, it can also be retrained. That idea becomes relevant later when she describes treatment for food addiction and eating disorders—because the internal narrative is often the fuse that lights the behavior.
The Humbling Shift: Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom
After her first child, Sakina and her husband decided she would stay home. She describes this as a shock to her identity because the “things that validated me” were removed. No job title. No performance ladder. No accolades.
Now she had to stand in her own skin and answer the question she had avoided for years: who am I without achievement?
That period pushed her away from chasing financial stability as a substitute for wholeness and toward the field she felt genuinely drawn to—mental health, the brain, trauma, and healing. She returned to school and committed to the work.
She says something that lands with quiet force: her work today doesn’t feel like work because she feels she’s doing what she was created to do.
A Quick Word on Marriage: Still Standing, Still Learning
Susan asks whether her marriage survived. Sakina says yes, but she’s candid that it has been difficult and remains a journey. The tone isn’t bleak—it’s realistic. Healing doesn’t happen in isolation; it happens in relationships, and relationships apply pressure to every unresolved wound.
What Milestones in Recovery Treats—and Why People Finally Call
The conversation then turns to Milestones in Recovery, where Sakina serves as Clinical Director. She describes the scope of the program: treatment for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and food addiction. The program is residential and typically about 30 days, requiring a person to step away from everyday life and face what’s been driving their behaviors.
She emphasizes something important: by the time a person calls, they’ve usually tried everything—every diet, every self-imposed plan, every private promise. Many are restricting all day and binging at night. Some binge and purge and are constantly scanning for bathrooms. Others restrict to the point of physical danger, sometimes as a form of self-erasure tied to trauma.
The common thread isn’t “lack of discipline.” It’s pain, shame, and coping strategies that turned into traps.
“No Sugar, No Flour”: The Detox Nobody Wants but Many Need
Sakina explains that Milestones begins with a clear food structure: no sugar, no flour. A nutritionist designs an individualized food plan, and the program uses blind weights so the clinical team can monitor health without making the number the emotional center of treatment.
She describes what happens when you remove the coping mechanism: cravings spike, irritability rises, fear shows up, and many people want to leave. She calls it detox, and she treats it as real—not a metaphor. The body has become dependent on sugar hits, and when the next hit doesn’t come, withdrawal-like symptoms can appear.
The program’s job is to support clients through that initial storm so the deeper work can begin.
When the Food Goes Down, the Pain Goes Up
Sakina says something that should be engraved above the door of every serious addiction program: when the food goes down, the pain goes up.
In other words, the eating disorder or addictive behavior isn’t the “real problem.” It’s often a symptom covering something deeper—trauma, depression, anxiety, core beliefs of unworthiness, unresolved grief, or chronic stress. Sakina estimates that a very large portion of clients have experienced trauma, and many also present with co-occurring mood disorders.
Once the coping mechanism is removed, the person is emotionally raw—which is precisely when therapy becomes both difficult and possible.
Why Community Matters More Than People Think
Sakina repeatedly returns to the role of community. She explains that eating disorders and food addiction thrive in isolation because shame makes people hide. Many clients can’t talk to family because the feedback is simplistic and sometimes cruel: “Just stop eating,” “Just go to the gym,” “Just have willpower.”
Milestones offers a community where clients are surrounded by others who understand the behavior from the inside, not as a moral failure from the outside. Being seen and understood is not a sentimental bonus—it’s a practical tool. Shame loses power when it is named in the presence of people who get it.
What Therapy Looks Like Inside the Program
Milestones uses a mix of therapeutic and experiential interventions. Sakina mentions group therapy and individual therapy, along with approaches like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy). The work includes addressing negative thought loops and building skills for distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and relapse prevention.
She also mentions EMDR, used to process trauma and negative core belief systems. In many cases, Milestones may begin EMDR work while clients are still in residential care, providing real-time relief and momentum.
The program also incorporates practices that support mind-body connection: yoga, somatic movement, drumming, meditation, and a spiritual component. The goal is not to throw trendy wellness spaghetti at the wall. The goal is to address the whole system—mind, body, and spirit—because addiction isn’t a problem that lives only in the mouth. It lives in the nervous system, the thoughts, the beliefs, and the sense of self.
The Eating Disorder as “Friend,” “Lover,” and Reliable Escape
Sakina offers a striking description of how clients often talk about their eating disorder or food addiction: like a lover, a friend, a reward system—something that accepts them unconditionally.
That’s not poetic language. It’s diagnostic. If food has become the most reliable relationship in someone’s life, removing it feels like losing a partner. That’s why thought patterns intensify during early recovery: “I’m alone,” “I’m not good enough,” “No one is there for me,” “What do I turn to now?”
CBT and DBT help clients build distance between those thoughts and the actions that follow. The aim is to create enough space that an urge doesn’t automatically become a behavior.
SMURF and Constructive Living: A Simple Framework With Teeth
Susan references a framework associated with Milestones’ leadership: SMURF, which stands for Spirituality, Meditation, Exercise, Rest, and Food (plan). Sakina strongly supports the model and explains why each piece matters.
Meditation builds awareness and interrupts the autopilot of negative self-talk. Exercise and movement help discharge stress and regulate the nervous system. Rest is essential because sleep is often the first thing destroyed by addiction, and nighttime can be a prime binge window. The food plan creates structure and removes decision fatigue. And spirituality—defined broadly as connection to a power greater than self—restores hope when a person has lost it.
Sakina also highlights the idea of constructive living: do the next best thing regardless of how you feel. In recovery, waiting to “feel ready” is a luxury many people don’t have. Behavior often has to lead; feelings catch up later.
What “Transformation in 30 Days” Actually Means
Toward the end, Susan asks about the transformations Milestones sees in a month. Sakina describes the program as a “model of reality” while in treatment. Clients don’t just talk about recovery—they practice it.
A nutritionist supports grocery shopping and meal prep, because that’s what clients will have to do at home. The program connects clients to community supports like alumni meetings and 12-step resources. Discharge planning is treated seriously: therapists, meetings, support networks. Sakina emphasizes a crucial truth: residential treatment is the beginning; the real work continues when clients go home.
One major change she sees is that clients begin to understand how trauma and core belief systems are tied to behavior. Once that connection is visible, treatment recommendations become more accurate and recovery becomes less mysterious. When people stop thinking of relapse as “I’m broken” and start seeing it as “I returned to the only tool I had,” they can finally build new tools.
What Sakina Would Say to Someone Listening in Secret
The closing question is aimed directly at the listener who feels trapped—binging, purging, restricting, terrified of food, terrified of their body, carrying massive weight, or stuck in compulsive patterns they can’t control.
Sakina’s answer is simple and blunt in the best way: there is hope.
She urges people to get curious about why they can’t stop on their own, and to stop treating help-seeking as failure. If you’ve tried everything, it’s okay to ask, “Is this food addiction? Is this an eating disorder? What do I do next?” She frames the first step as courage, not shame.
She also describes what she sees every day: people walk in terrified, convinced nothing will change. Her role in those moments is to stand firm and tell them, “Now is your time.” If they come in and trust the process, they can gain clarity and be better positioned to make healthy decisions for the future.
The Quiet Heart of the Episode: Being Treated Like a Human Being
Near the end, Sakina says something that might be the most important line of all: as Clinical Director, it matters to her that Milestones treats people like human beings. She describes a family-like culture where clients are seen, heard, and understood—because isolation is where addiction thrives.
That’s the through-line connecting her childhood, her depression, her work success, her postpartum crash, and her clinical philosophy. People don’t just need rules. They need repair. They need a relationship. They need tools. They need hope that feels credible—not a motivational poster, but an experience of being met by others who know the territory.
If you’re listening to this episode as someone who is struggling, the subtext is clear: you are not uniquely broken. You are using the tools you have. And there are better tools—ones that can actually give you a life that doesn’t require hiding.
Takeaway
This interview isn’t a glossy success story. It’s an honest map of how pain becomes pattern—and how help becomes a turning point. Sakina’s message is not “try harder.” It’s “get support, because this is bigger than willpower.”
A Gentle Invitation to Take the Next Step
If you see yourself anywhere in Sakina’s story—or in the stories of the clients she described—you do not have to continue carrying this alone.
At Milestones, individuals struggling with food addiction, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and related mood disorders are welcomed into a structured, compassionate residential program designed to address the whole person—not just the behavior.
Under the clinical leadership of Sakina Osborne, Clinical Director, the program integrates trauma-informed therapy, individualized nutritional care, and a deeply supportive community environment. Milestones is not simply about stopping behaviors. It is about understanding what drives them.
From the moment a client enters the program, they receive:
- A personalized assessment to determine readiness and clinical needs
- An individualized food plan guided by an on-staff nutritionist (including a no sugar, no flour framework)
- Blind weight monitoring for medical safety without fueling obsession
- Daily therapeutic support through individual and group therapy
- Evidence-based interventions such as CBT, DBT, and EMDR for trauma processing
- Mind-body practices, including meditation, yoga, somatic movement, and structured exercise
- A spirituality component and the SMURF framework (Spirituality, Meditation, Exercise, Rest, Food plan)
- Community support and alumni connection to prepare for life after residential care
Milestones recognizes what many people quietly discover on their own: when the food goes down, the pain comes up. The work there is not about shame, blame, or willpower. It is about helping individuals safely detox from compulsive behaviors while building the emotional tools, awareness, and support systems necessary for lasting recovery.
As Clinical Director, Sakina leads a multidisciplinary team committed to treating every client with dignity, compassion, and respect. The culture at Milestones is intentionally family-like—clients are seen, heard, and understood, often for the first time in years.
If you have tried everything and still feel stuck…
If you binge at night and promise yourself tomorrow will be different…
If you restrict, purge, or feel trapped in a cycle you cannot break…
If you feel ashamed, isolated, or afraid to ask for help…
You are not broken. And you are not alone.
A simple phone call to Milestones in Recovery can begin with a confidential conversation—no pressure, just clarity. Their team can help you determine whether residential treatment is appropriate and what next steps might look like.
You do not have to wait until things get worse.
You do not have to hit a wall.
Sometimes recovery begins with one honest conversation.
If you’re ready to explore what support could look like for you or someone you love, reach out to Milestones and take that first step toward hope.
Link to Full Podcast for The Infact School: https://www.youtube.com/@TheInfactSchool/podcasts
Link to YouTube Channel for The Infact School: https://www.youtube.com/@TheInfactSchool
Link to the Podcast Interview: Podcast Interview
Ready to Learn More or Get Support?
If Sakina’s story or the discussion in this interview resonated with you, Milestones is here to help. Milestones is a trusted eating disorder facility in South Florida offering compassionate, evidence-based residential care for individuals struggling with binge eating disorder, anorexia, bulimia, and related compulsive food behaviors.
You can explore more about their programs and approach here:
- Learn about the Milestones Residential Program – Discover how comprehensive, structured support helps clients heal.
- Binge Eating Disorder Treatment – Learn how Milestones addresses compulsive overeating and food addiction.
- Anorexia Nervosa Residential Treatment – Explore their specialized approach to anorexia recovery.
- See the Milestones Facility – Take a closer look at the residential environment and care setting.
- Contact Milestones – Ask questions, speak confidentially with admissions, or begin the next step.
- Alumni & Community Support – Ongoing meetings and connection beyond residential care.
Taking the first step does not mean committing to treatment — it simply means getting informed. A confidential conversation can help you understand your options and determine what support might look like for you or someone you love.
