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Recovery Stories Blog

Spider-Man & Batman: Huseyin Djemil

In my Recovery Voices interview with Huseyin Djemil of Towards Recovery, Huseyin talks about how Andy Partington, in his new book Hope in Addiction, emphasises the distinction in the way that Spider-Man and Batman accomplish their feats. He discusses this distinction in relation to the nature of recovery.

The real deal in recovery is being bitten by the spider and having that internal transformation (like Spider-Man) that makes you look at everything differently. Huseyin had that transformation occur when he was in a rehab. He then ended up having all of Batman’s tools and skills as well, which further facilitated his recovery. Our Recovery Stories, 25 March 2023. [2’17”]

Recovery Voices is a new initiative being run by Wulf Livingston of North Wales and myself. Andy Partington’s book is out in the UK on 18 April, but is already out in Australia and USA. Here is a short endorsement I wrote for Andy’s book:

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Adam’s Story: A Moment of Clarity

What’s it like when you reach that point when you say, “Enough is enough, I have to change.” And you do change! The moment of clarity that triggers the journey to recovery. Here’s what my close friend Adam had to say in his Recovery Story.

‘Eventually, I ended up living in a caravan in Palm Beach, near Rockingham. I had sold my car for $50, which bought me two dope sticks. I got around on an old pushbike from the dump, but ended up selling that. I was just drinking and smoking dope to get blottoed, and often would wake up to find myself covered in vomit. The caravan, like me, was a mess. Eventually the dope ran out, then the money.

I contacted the Salvation Army in Rockingham and they said they could temporarily house me in a house in Mandurah. As far as I remember, I walked to Mandurah, carrying two black garbage bags containing my few possessions, $10 and a cask of wine.

Then came a moment in time I will never forget. I was walking through a small cemetery in Mandurah when I stopped to look at a gravestone and said to myself, “If I keep going with this destructive life, I will end up in a grave, or jail at the very least.” At the time, I didn’t really care. It was a bit of a strange moment in my life, a turning point you could say.

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Huseyin Djemil’s Lent Blog Series

Huseyin Djemil of Towards Recovery has posted the 40th and last part of his Lent Blog Series, an amazing Recovery Guide. You can find links to all the posts in our Resources section. Here is the last episode of Huseyin’s series, Living a fulfilling life:

‘I’m not we are always the best example [to others] of someone living a fulfilling and meaningful life in recovery because everyone’s life is made up of a unique set experiences and responses to those experiences that shape us. In my case, I’m just trying to be “present”, to turn up as the authentic me in all aspects of my life in recovery. I don’t always manage it and sometimes when I do, the authentic me can make my life harder e.g., If I’m asked what I think about something I usually say, and sometimes (quite often) it can put the cat among the pigeons.

I also can’t help helping, and often my life in recovery feels it’s at its best when I’m helping someone solve a problem, meet a goal, or get closer to realising a dream they have. Mostly all I do is listen or act as a sounding board and occasionally I have a contact that I can connect the person to.

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My Journey: Part 7. The Former Heroin Addict Who Helped Change My Life

When I first met Natalie back in 2000, I didn’t realise that she would play a role in my decision to change career from neuroscientist to addiction recovery advocate, researcher and educator. Her words also contributed to my decision to write a collection of Recovery Stories. Thank you, Natalie. (1,730 words)


I remember vividly to this day Natalie saying to me back in 2000 that if I wanted to help people overcome serious substance use problems, I needed to start telling stories of people finding recovery.

She also emphasised to me that when your life has fallen apart and you are physically and mentally unwell, you have become isolated in your addiction, feel shame and disgust about yourself, and know that others think of you as nothing more than a ‘worthless junkie’, you give up on trying to change. It’s all too difficult; you see no escape. The easiest thing to do is to kill all the pain with more heroin, or more drink. 

The conversations I had with Natalie have always stuck in my mind. They have had an enormous impact on me even today, over 23 years later.

I had spent all those years as a neuroscientist trying to understand brain function and its role in addiction and had never considered such things as those described by Natalie and other recovering addicts. That people would continue to use heroin use because they had no hope and saw no escape (no-one else they knew had escaped), and so they could kill the shame and guilt they felt, and the feelings they experienced from knowing their life had fallen apart. 

I asked Natalie whether we could tell her story. She agreed to be interviewed by Becky Hancock, a former psychology student of mine who was now working with me on the Welsh Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund (DATF) evaluation at the time. That Story, first ‘told’ by Becky, has appeared in various forms over the years, including in the first and second editions of Drink and Drugs News. Here is a summary of part of Natalie’s Story.

When Natalie was eleven years old and having just moved to a city from the countryside, her father was arrested for a drug offence and eventually sentenced to 22 years in prison. The impact of this and related events on this young girl’s social and emotional wellbeing must have been substantial.

‘I couldn’t understand what was going on. I was having to go to a new school not knowing anyone, but feeling that everyone knew about what had happened to my family. Every single day, I was extremely anxious about someone finding out that I was the daughter of the ‘evil drug smuggler’ who was written about on the front page of newspapers. It was one of the biggest drug busts in the country at that time, and the papers kept saying that my Dad was the evil mastermind behind the whole operation. To me, my Dad wasn’t evil!

I got so anxious that I used to wake up and pray every morning that no one would mention my Dad or anything about prisons. The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life was to enter my classroom, walk to the back, and sit down at my desk, not knowing who knew what and whether anyone would say anything. As it turned out, nothing was ever said, but I wasn’t to know that then.’

Natalie’s anxiety did not lessen over the next two years. She would experience what she would later learn were panic attacks when a teacher would say something like, ‘We’re going to be discussing a case that happened some time ago…’

In addition, Natalie had to regularly visit her Dad in prison whilst he was on remand over a two-year period. She had to live through two trials, the first being abandoned just prior to completion. She regularly visited her Dad in a prison on the other side of the country once he was sentenced. The nature of these visits was not easy. Natalie missed her Dad and could not come to terms with the media’s portrayal of him.

When she was fourteen, Natalie started to hang out with people who were a little wilder than her previous friends. She started to smoke cigarettes and cannabis, and skip school. For the first time in years, she started to fit in somewhere. The cannabis helped her deal with her ongoing emotional pain.

She became pregnant and had a son (Joshua) when she was sixteen. The father had disappeared by the time of Joshua’s birth. Natalie then started using amphetamines and drinking alcohol more. She started going out with a dealer (John) who ended up going to prison. 

Natalie’s Dad was released from prison early, when she was nineteen years old. When he came home, he was very different to the man she remembered. After about a year, the family discovered that Dad had picked up a heroin habit in prison. He started dealing heroin to Natalie’s boyfriend John, who had also gotten a heroin habit whilst in prison. Not long after, she started using heroin. 

The family dynamic was now all over the place. Natalie’s Mum was struggling with the situation—no wonder, with her husband and oldest daughter addicted to heroin, another daughter playing up, and a grandchild to look after. All those promises about being a happy family after Dad’s release had not come to fruition.

Is it any surprise that Natalie turned to regular heroin use given all that previously happened to her, life as it was at the current time, and once she had experienced the psychological pain-killing effects of the drug? Here are some excerpts from Natalie’s original Recovery Story, I Didn’t Plan To Be An Addict. The first quote relates to a time after she had started using heroin regularly:

‘At this time, I was completely lost. I remember thinking, ‘I’m scared’, but I couldn’t see a way out. I felt completely trapped. I absolutely hated using gear because of what it was doing. I felt totally controlled by John and heroin. My heroin use was taking its toll on my body. I collapsed twice from using too much, once in front of Joshua [Natalie’s son]….

I was too afraid to go to the doctor for help because I thought they would take Joshua off me. Even though I was addicted to drugs and they were my priority, I still loved my son and no way did I want to lose him….’ 

The following quotes are from the time Natalie was attending her treatment service:

‘When I went for my appointment, I was offered a place on the pre-treatment programme. The treatment agency worker kept saying to me, ‘You’ll do this, kid’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God, do you really think so!?’ I really honestly couldn’t believe him. I just didn’t think I would be able to get out of my situation….’

‘… I was still using heroin when I first attended the agency. There were about fifteen other treatment agency clients in my first group session, one of whom was an ex-heroin user who had been clean for about 16 years. She came over to talk to me and I was in awe. She had done exactly what I was doing and she had gotten through it. It was a Light Bulb Moment. From that moment on, I didn’t feel so alone. For the first time, I was with a group of people who understood me and my addiction, and I understood and related to them and with what they were saying.

You have to realise my state of thinking prior to that first group meeting in the treatment agency. Once I had become addicted to heroin, I did not see that there was any alternative to the life I was living. I didn’t know anyone who had overcome heroin addiction. I had never heard of anyone who had done so. I could find no information on the internet on how to give up using the drug. That was it! I just had to carry on doing what I was doing….’

‘… As time passed, being at the agency and attending NA meetings felt fantastic. They were the right places for me. I actually felt like I belonged. It was really nice having something in common with other people. I also started to understand my addiction, and came to realise that my behaviour was part of my illness.…’

‘… One of the hardest things to deal with was the mental frustration. I had so many things going around my head and I was really scared. I had tried to change so many times before and I was battling with thoughts that I was going to mess up again. I had all these feelings rushing around my head, but I didn’t realise what they were because I had suppressed them for so long with heroin.

I can remember not being able to distinguish between feelings of hurt and anger. My counsellor really helped me to re-learn what different feelings stood for, which really helped. The hardest thing was having to face up to my past problems and seeing the damage I had caused to myself and others by taking drugs. I didn’t want to face up to the bad things that had happened and that I’d done. It was so difficult trying to sort all of that out raw, without using drugs to cope….’

‘… The treatment agency also helped me to re-build the relationship with my son, which had been damaged over the years. When I first approached the agency, I didn’t know how to be a mother.…’

‘… Whilst in treatment, I began to do non-vocational courses (e.g. pottery and dress making) and help out at the local school. This allowed me to mix with people who were not addicts. This was a big step, because I had become quite isolated from ‘normal’ people. It was also the first time that I had ever completed a course.’

Natalie is now over twenty years into her recovery. You can read her full Story here.

Many people with a serious substance use problem know what they want—a valued and meaningful life without drugs. They just do not know how to achieve what they want, and they lack the internal and external resources to take the journey to recovery and the life they want. 

What works in treatment?: Michael Scott

On the 10th of April, my close friend Michael Scott will celebrate his 45th Recovery Birthday.

Michael lives down the road from me and we see each other regularly. Michael first contacted me back in 2002 when I ran the drug and alcohol news portal Daily Dose. We first met in 2009, not long after I moved to Australia.

Here is a blog post that I first wrote in October 2013, part of a series focused on important factors that facilitate addiction treatment. It is taken from Michael’s Recovery Story, The Power of Empathy and Compassion.

‘I made the decision to stop drinking on April 10th, 1978, three years after my parents had died. My last drinking session took place at the Shenton Park Hotel. I finished my last drink and slammed the glass down, saying to myself that this was it! “No more drinking!” I have not had a drop of alcohol since then.

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‘Lessons from Rehab’: David McCartney

Here’s another excellent blog post by Dr. David McCartney on the Recovery Review blog.

In 2005, concerned at the lack of choice in addiction treatment in Scotland and hearing frustrations from patients and families around lack of access to residential treatment, I sought support and funding to set up a drug and alcohol rehab service based on the therapeutic community (TC) model. This would be unique in Scotland as, based in the NHS, it would be free at the point of delivery, eliminating difficult funding pathways.

I proposed the service should serve a local population to keep people close to their families and allow them to develop local recovery supports and access intensive aftercare. It should develop close working relationships with other treatment and support options – this should be an ‘as-well-as’ service rather than an ‘instead-of’ service. There should be direct family support and detox offered as part of the deal. We would actively connect people to recovery resources in the community, offer them peer support and open avenues into education, training and employability.

Outcomes from rehab in Scotland (and even the UK) at the time were hard to find – but so were any treatment outcomes from services already in operation, so I built in that we should commission a robust evaluation. If this wasn’t going to work, we needed to know that – and if it helped people achieve their goals we wanted to get that message (and any other learning) out there.

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The Culture of Addiction, Part 2

This article is the follow-up to the first part of The Culture of Addiction.

Society makes judgements about different types of psychoactive drug. As Bill White points out in his book Pathways from the Culture of Addiction to the Culture of Recovery, the social status and value attached to a particular drug by society influence several things:

  • The risks associated with use of the drug
  • The organisation of ‘tribes’ within the culture of addiction
  • The characteristics of each tribe and the impairments that members experience from both the drug and the culture itself.

Clearly, there are likely to be differences in a variety of factors for drugs that are legal (e.g. alcohol) and those that are prohibited by law (e.g. heroin). Simply by using a prohibited drug, a person increases the risks associated with this drug, relative to what it would be if the drug could be legally obtained. Whilst society applies technology to reduce the risks of using legal substances, it often withdraws technology to increase risks from use of prohibited drugs.

‘We prohibit a ‘bad’ drug on the rationale that it is dangerous, and then construct social policies that assure high risks related to the drug’s use.’ William L White

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Our First Recovery Voice: Huseyin Djemil

Wulf Livingston, from North Wales, and I have developed a new initiative called Recovery Voices. We will be interviewing people in recovery from addiction, as well as their recovery friends, and creating a series of short films focused on a number of themes. These short films will eventually become part of a new Recovery Voices section of the website.

The first of our Recovery Voices interviewees is Huseyin Djemil from Henley-on-Thames in the UK. Some of you may remember that I was the first participant in Huseyin’s Journeys Podcast which is available on the Towards Recovery website.

I have edited a series of 15 short films (totally nearly 90 minutes) to from Huseyin’s Voice which can currently be found in the Resources section of the website. Huseyin talks about the recovery community he developed, Towards Recovery, describes some of his work as a freelance consultant in the addiction field, and reflects on various themes related to addiction recovery and treatment. He is in long-term recovery from an addiction to Class A drugs. 

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My Journey: 9. Cracks in the UK Drug Strategy

Describes a piece of research I conducted relating to a 2003 article by Nick Davies for The Guardian newspaper in which he claimed that the UK Drug Strategy was failing as a result of government bureaucracy. I followed up this report by contacting  Drug Action Team (DAT) co-ordinators to see how prevalent the problems Nick identified were across the country. (2,896 words)


 ‘The government is so determined to control every aspect of the delivery of policy that the control itself becomes the object of the project, disrupting and obstructing, delaying and destroying.’ Nick Davies, The Guardian, 22 May 2003

On 22 May 2003, leading investigative journalist Nick Davies, the man who first revealed the News of the World phone hacking story six years later, had a long article, How Britain is Losing the Drug War, published in The Guardian newspaper.

In brief, Davies argued that the central government-produced bureaucracy surrounding Drug Action Teams (DATs), local multi-agency partnerships created to help government deliver and monitor elements of the UK drugs strategy, was at such a high level that the DATs were unable to do their work properly. This was resulting in a failure to provide adequate treatment for people with a substance use problem. He went on to say that the whole system might collapse and with it the UK drugs strategy.

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The Culture of Addiction: Part 1

This is the first of two blog posts on the culture of addiction that I first uploaded to the website back in 2013. They are strongly based on the seminal writings of William (Bill) White, in particular from his stimulating book Pathways from the Culture of Addiction to the Culture of Recovery. In this book, Bill provides key insights into how we can help people move cultures—essential in their journey along the path to recovery.

‘Culture’ generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Wikipedia

Drug users often seek out and build relationships with other people whose drug use is similar to their own. They become part of small groups within which they can nurture the rituals of drug use. These groups interact with other drug-using groups, ultimately forming a broader network of users who share common goals and attributes. These social networks constitute a fully organised culture, one that has an existence and power that transcends individual membership.

In his book, Bill White emphasises the importance of understanding the culture of addiction. He emphasises that many addicts find it easier to break their physiological relationship with the drug than to break their relationship with the culture in which they use the drug. Clearly, one needs to understand how to move someone from the culture of addiction to the culture of recovery.

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A Touching Farewell to Brad Miah-Phillips

Bradley Miah PhillipsI still feel strange that my good friend and Recovery Stories Storyteller is no longer with us. Earlier today (my time), I received a message from Stuart Forshaw, Chairman of The Basement Recovery Project, asking if I had seen words he had written about Brad. I had not.

I asked Stuart if I could add those words to my In Memorium for Brad, as well as use them in today’s blog. Stuart agreed.

Stuart visited Brad in hospital where our mutual friend was in an induced coma following a massive stroke. Stuart sat with Brad and read some pages from the big book – Alcoholics Anonymous. Brad lost the ability to take breath and was placed on a ventilator. The following day, the life support was switched off and Brad passed away, sober and at peace. I continue with Stuart’s words:

‘Here was a man who had unselfishly given himself to the service of others throughout almost 15 years of sobriety and freedom from drugs; a man whose time in prison and sleeping rough on the streets were probably better qualifications for his work in the recovery field than the degree in Criminal Psychology he achieved in his early years of sobriety; and a  man who sought no recognition whatsoever for his work, let alone any gratitude for it.

He simply gave. All that he had been gifted, he gave to others.

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‘The need to be honest, willing and open-minded’ by Rosie

Here is a blog that I first posted on the website in September 2013. Rosie had earlier posted the blog on our online community Wired In To Recovery.

‘Everyone needs a guide in life—for no one can be judge in their own case. We all need to have someone in our life we can totally trust—and none more so than the alcoholic seeking recovery.

I came to understand through being around others like myself, from listening to them and hearing their personal stories of recovery, that such a person was required—a sponsor—to guide me through the 12 Steps, the Programme that has brought thousands of people into recovery.

Through listening to these people, I began to get an idea of what the 12-Step Programme was about and of the important part it played in the daily life of the recovering alcoholic.

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The Four Walls: Mark Ragins

Here’s another great blog from one of my favourite psychiatrists, Mark Ragins of The Village fame. I first posted this article that Mark wrote on Recovery Stories back in October 2013.  Mark wrote the original article in 1998. [NB. I have broken up some of the original paragraphs to make it easier to read online.]

‘In 1989, the California State Legislature authorized the funding for three model mental health programs, including the Village Integrated Service Agency in Long Beach, in part to answer the question, “Does anything work?”

We created a radical departure from traditional mental health services basing our entire system on psychosocial rehabilitation principles, quality of life outcomes and community integration. Arguably, we have created the most comprehensive, integrated and effective recovery based mental health program anywhere.

In recent years, encouraged by our success, both our attention and the legislature’s have turned to the further question of “How can our whole system be more like the Village?” Undoubtedly, there are numerous serious beaurocratic, funding, and system design issues relevant to that question, but I would like to focus on the personal issues staff must face.

I believe that basing mental health services on recovery is the paradigm shift that can finally make the dream of deinstitutionalization a reality.

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My Journey: 6. Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund (DATF) Evaluation

Describes our 2000-2002 national evaluation of projects supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund (DATF) in Wales, detailing two particular projects, the North Wales Community Drug and Alcohol Liaison Midwife position and the Option 2 project in Cardiff. (4,837 words)


As indicated in an earlier chapter, I won the tender to evaluate all projects supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund (DATF) in Wales early in the year 2000. The DATF was developed by the National Assembly for Wales (in effect the Welsh Government) in response to the recognised shortage of addiction treatment services, in particular for young people.

Although the funding £1.5 million per annum was initially conceived as being entirely for treatment, it was soon recognised that it must be used for a wider set of activities, including prevention and training. Organisations submitted bids for funding to their respective Drug and Alcohol Action Teams (DAATs)—Bro Taf, Dyfed Powys, Gwent, Morgannwg and North Wales.  

The Gwent DAAT co-ordinator, David Jeremiah, was given the responsibility of initiating, developing and organising the DATF, which started on 1 April 2000. Each DAAT was given an annual sum for evaluating, monitoring and supporting projects, of which part was top-sliced to provide funding for a National Evaluation—funding was given to my employer, the University of Wales Swansea (as it was known then)—whilst the remainder was used for local evaluation.

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Huseyin Djemil’s ‘Towards Recovery’ Blog Series

Yesterday, I posted a film clip of part of a conversation between Huseyin Djemil and myself which was originally recorded for the former’s Journey Podcast series. Huseyin, who lives in Henley-on-Thames in the UK, developed the inspiring recovery community Towards Recovery back in 2012. Their website is well worth a look, and if you are in the area then check out their Recovery Cafe.

At the beginning of March this year, I introduced you to Huseyin’s Blog Series. Here is how Huseyin describes the series on the Towards Recovery website:

‘As we approached Lent, Huseyin felt inspired to take action this year. He is observing the 40-day period of fasting and prayer and has given up watching TV during this period and committed to writing a short article for each day of Lent in the hope that it might inform and inspire others in their recovery journey as well. Lets dive in…’

I love this inspirational series as it contains a wealth of useful information for people on their recovery journey. Here are the titles and links to the first 22 blog posts [I have just updated this blog to complete the series—DC, 03/04/23]:

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Recovering People and Their Stories: ‘Journeys’ Podcast with David Clark and Huseyin Djemil (Part 9)

Huseyin Djemil from Henley-on-Thames in the UK runs the Towards Recovery community and website. He interviewed me back in April 2021 for his new Journeys Podcast series. I later edited the film into 12 clips, totalling more than 70 minutes, for Our Recovery Stories YouTube channel. I haven’t really promoted this material to date, but will start doing so much more when we launch a new revamped version of this website in the coming months. Above is the longest of these film clips, which focuses on addiction recovery stories and their importance.

Huseyin and David discuss people recovering from addiction, their journeys, and their stories. Recovering people are an asset. They have generally come through a great deal of adversity and have much to teach other people, not just those trying to overcome addiction. We need to be getting more recovering people together, and ensuring that their Stories are disseminated widely. Huseyin also talks about Towards Recovery, a community he first established in 2012. Our Recovery Stories. 21 June 2022. [11’35”]

The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF)

After nearly twenty years working as a neuroscientist, I closed down my university research laboratory at the beginning of the millennium. I no longer believe in the biomedical approach to helping people overcome addiction and mental health problems. I believe that long-term use of psychiatric drugs causes more harm than good. It’s not ‘what is wrong with you’, but ‘what has happened, or is happening, to you.’

In January 2018, the Clinical Psychology Division of The British Psychological Society produced a very important paper, titled The Power Threat Meaning Framework and subtitled ‘Towards the identification of patterns in emotional distress, unusual experiences and troubled or troubling behaviour, as an alternative to functional psychiatric diagnosis.’

In my opinion, this document is a major breakthrough in the field, and the approach it describes makes so much more sense and is far superior to the biomedical approach to helping people overcome emotional distress (or so-called mental health problems).

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A Rendezvous With Hope: Bill White

Here’s one of my favourite posts from that prolific blogger William (Bill) White, addiction recovery advocate, writer, researcher and historian. Bill’s complete writings are now being hosted on a website run by Chestnut Health Systems in the US.

‘Through my early tenure in the addictions field, the question of readiness for treatment and recovery was thought to be a pain quotient.  We then believed that people didn’t enter recovery until they had “hit bottom.”  If a person did not show evidence of such pain-induced readiness, they were often refused admission to treatment. Then we recognized that the reason it took people so long to “hit bottom” was that they were protected from the painful consequences of their alcohol and other drug use by people we called “enablers.”  We then set about teaching enablers to stop rescuing and protecting their beloved but addicted family members. 

Vern Johnson then came along and convinced us we could raise the bottom through a process he called intervention.  Staging such interventions within families and the workplace was something of a revolution that brought large numbers of culturally empowered people into recovery, including a former First Lady. All of these early philosophies and technologies relied on pain as a catalyst of addiction recovery, and that was the view I brought to my work as an evaluator of an innovative network of women’s treatment programs in the 1980s called Project SAFE.

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My Journey: 4. Learning About Addiction Treatment – WGCADA Stories

Three stories from the treatment agency West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA) in Swansea describe a medical student’s experiences during a day with community support worker Dave Watkins; a client’s experiences whilst interacting with Arrest Referral worker Becky Hancock, and a client’s experiences in the Primary treatment programme at WGCADA. (4,644 words)


In the previous part of My Journey, I described some of what I learnt through a small group of practitioners (some of whom were in recovery) at the treatment agency WGCADA in Swansea. During my time at WGCADA, my colleagues and I wrote a number of stories, three of which I include here.

1. ’A Day in the Life of Dave’ by Annalie Clark

The first story is written by my daughter Annalie, after she finished her first year of medical training at the University of Edinburgh and worked as a volunteer for Wired In over a period of the summer. One of her projects involved following around WGCADA Community Support Worker Dave Watkins.

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Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong: Johann Hari

‘The core of that message, “You’re not alone, we love you,” has to be at every level of how we respond to addicts socially, politically and individually. For one hundred years now, we’ve been singing war songs about addicts. I think all along we should have been singing love songs to them… because the opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection.’

I loved this TED talk by Johann Hari years ago when I first viewed it. And after watching it early this morning, I still love it! Watching the film again reminded me of the words of Tim, a professional working in the field who is also in recovery from addiction, one of the storytellers in our Recovery Stories project.

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