Mark Gilman: Positive social networks and recovering from addiction

‘No one can do it for you and you can’t do it alone’, get on the boat, any boat, and talk about the technique / route later and don’t do it on your own!’

Early In June, I blogged about what Bill White refers to as a recovery carrier. ‘Recovery carriers are people, usually in recovery, who make recovery infectious to those around them by their openness about their recovery experiences, their quality of life and character, and the compassion for and service to people still suffering from alcohol and other drug problems.’

Well, many people in the UK will know Mark Gilman as a recovery carrier par excellence. Mark has been advocating for recovery for  number of years now and has almost certainly visited more recovery communities and initiatives than anyone in the UK. He is one of the funniest people you will ever hear talk about recovery. Mark also shows that you don’t need to be in recovery to be a great advocate.  

Mark recently talked at the ‘Helping to build a recovery community’ conference organised by Huseyin Djemil at the Henley Recovery Cafe in late November.

In the above film clip, Huseyin introduces “the hardest working civil servant”. Mark’s talk is presented in his typically engaging and witty style – delegates wanted the presentation emailed over to them the following day.

You can see more videos from this event here.