bill white — Page 3 — Recovery Stories

‘No More Graduation’ by Bill White

March 31, 2014

Something to reflect upon in Bill White’s latest blog.

‘The acute care (AC) model of intervention that, with few exceptions, has dominated the modern treatment of addiction involves a brief – and seemingly ever-briefer – period of professional intervention followed by cessation of the service relationship.

As addiction professionals working within this model, we are trained to screen, assess, admit, treat and discharge each person we serve. And as we approach the end of this sequence, we are trained to address “termination” issues in the counseling relationship, prepare “discharge” plans and, in many of our settings, participate in a “graduation” ritual that signals the end of primary treatment and the service relationship.

‘Recovery Landscapes’ by Bill White

March 14, 2014

‘Interventions into severe alcohol and other (AOD) problems have focused primarily upon altering the character, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of individuals. Far less attention has been given to influencing the environment in which such factors are birthed, sustained or changed. But interest in the geography of recovery is increasing. Researchers are beginning to suggest that reaching the tipping point of addiction recovery may have as much to do with community factors as intrapersonal factors. Recovery advocates and clinicians are calling for creation of a “healing forest” – “naturally occurring, healing environments that provide some of the corrective experiences that are vital for recovery.”

‘Recovery is contagious redux’ by Bill White

February 7, 2014

Here’s the latest from recovery advocate William L White. Wonderful words, just wonderful words.

‘Those of you who have been reading my weekly blogs these past six months will recognize two simple and enduring themes: Recovery is contagious and recovery is spread by recovery carriers. Those notions first came to me on April 14, 2010 when I stood to speak at Northeast Treatment Centers’ (NET) dinner honoring NET’s 40th anniversary and the achievements of NET members. Here are some of the words that came to me as I stood before a room packed with people filled with hopes of what their newly found recoveries would bring.

“This night is a celebration of the contagiousness of recovery and the fulfilled promises recovery has brought into our lives. Some of you did not leave the streets to find recovery; recovery came to the streets and found you.

‘Recovery Advocacy and the Making of The Anonymous People: An Interview with Greg Williams’ by William L White

January 29, 2014

Greg Williams’ film The Anonymous People has contributed enormously to the new recovery advocacy movement in the US. How did it all begin? Here, Greg is interviewed by Bill White. Below, is just a small part of that interview – it is part of Greg’s Story.

‘Introduction
Since the rise of a new addiction recovery advocacy movement in the late 1990s, culturally and politically mobilized people in recovery have found numerous vehicles through which that advocacy is being expressed.

A few years ago, I was contacted by Greg Williams, who shared his vision of capturing on film the spirit of the new recovery advocacy movement being manifested in communities across the country. It was one of the great honors of my life to play a small part in making Greg’s vision a reality.

Today, the film The Anonymous People is being screened in theatres and community settings across the U.S. and in other countries. On November 6, 2013, I had the opportunity to interview Greg about his life and this film. Please join us in this engaging conversation.

State of the New Recovery Advocacy Movement: Achievements, Part 3′ by Bill White

January 24, 2014

I continue Bill White’s list of achievements of the new recovery advocacy movement in the US.

‘Message Clarity. The data collection and analysis allowed us to formulate a clear set of messages that could be used by RCOs throughout the country and would be disseminated via “message training” that clarified the meaning of recovery and reality of long-term recovery in public communications.

A further critical step in that message clarity was the work of detailing how advocacy could be done in ways that were completely in alignment with the anonymity traditions of 12-Step recovery programs – a position recently reaffirmed via a widely disseminated communication from the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous.

‘State of the New Recovery Advocacy Movement: Achievements, Part 2′ by Bill White

January 24, 2014

If you missed the the first part of my blogs focused on Bill White’s exciting new writing on the new recovery advocacy movemnet in the US, you can find it here. Here, I continue to look at the list of achievements of this movement:

‘Kinetic Ideas. As early as 2000, five simple ideas emerged from the very heart of the movement – ideas that were foundational and kinetic (capable of inspiring action).

Those five ideas were:

1. addiction recovery is a living reality for individuals, families, and communities,
2. there are many (religious, spiritual, secular) pathways to recovery, and all are cause for celebration,
3. recovery flourishes in supportive communities,
4. recovery is a voluntary process, and
5. recovering and recovered people are part of the solution: recovery gives back what addiction has taken from individuals, families, and communities.
Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: addiction, bill white, celebration, community, recovery advocacy movement, recovery pathways, representation, research

‘State of the New Recovery Advocacy Movement: Achievements, Part 1’ by Bill White

January 22, 2014

Bill White seems to be pumping out his writings at the moment. I didn’t think this prolific writer could be even more productive, but I was wrong. Here’s a blog that links to a variety of Bill’s recent writings.

I was particularly interested in Bill’s piece on the state of the new recovery advocacy movement in the US. This is essential reading, so I thought I’d devote some blogs on a multitude of points raised by Bill. Here’s the first:

‘New Recovery Advocacy Movement Achievements
We would not be here today if those at the center of this emerging movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s had not made some very good decisions. I want to record some of the decisions that in retrospect I think were most important.

‘Unraveling the Mystery of Personal and Family Recovery: An Interview with Stephanie Brown, PhD’ by Bill White (Part 5)

January 21, 2014

Bill White: Your work has enhanced understanding of the intergenerational nature of alcohol and other drug problems. Have you envisioned how such intergenerational cycles might finally be broken?

Stephanie Brown: I think we’ve started to name and describe what happens in addicted families across generations, which is helping us understand family addiction and the complexities of family recovery. And I think we are poised to move beyond our current focus on the genetic and neurobiological influence on intergenerational transmission of addiction to include exploration of the larger psychological and social processes involved.

We need more family research to understand the transmission process and the kinds of family and community support processes that can influence these cycles and positively disrupt them.

‘Unraveling the Mystery of Personal and Family Recovery: An Interview with Stephanie Brown, PhD’ by Bill White (Part 4)

January 20, 2014

We continue Bill White’s interview with Stephanie Brown on family recovery. I cannot emphasise to you enough how important Stephanie’s work is.

‘Bill White: It poses the question of what the ideal scaffolding would be like that could support recovery.

Stephanie Brown: I think we understand much better today that the family encounters a vacuum on entering recovery with or without formal treatment or outpatient therapy. This vacuum within the family, and the same kind of vacuum in the community – the neighborhood, town, city, work, school, and social environments – is a significant problem.

ManyFaces1Voice: BIll White

January 2, 2014

Bill White has been a huge inspiration for Greg Williams of The Anonymous People. Here he is talking on ManyFaces1Voice.

‘William (Bill) White is Emeritus Senior Research Consultant, Chestnut Health Systems. He has served as a volunteer consultant to Faces & Voices of Recovery since its founding. He has a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies and has worked in the addictions field since 1969.

He has authored or coauthored more than 350 articles and monographs and fifteen books including Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America and Let’s Go Make Some History: Chronicles of the New Addiction Recovery Advocacy Movement. Check out an online library of his writings at www.williamwhitepapers.com.

Category: Blog Tags: bill white, manyfaces1voice, recovery, stigma, The Anonymous People

My Recovery Highlight of 2013

December 31, 2013

“Many of us have carried a message of hope on a one-to-one basis; this new recovery movement calls upon us to carry that message of hope to whole communities and the whole culture. We will shape the future of recovery with a detached silence or with a passionate voice. It is time we stepped forward to shape this history with our stories, our time and our talents.” William White

I have one major Recovery Highlight of 2013. A Recovery ‘event’ – or a huge series of events would be a better to describe it – that has moved, excited and inspired me. Yes, it is the Greg Williams’ film, The Anonymous People.

Now, I know that no one person is ever responsible for making a film. But Greg deserves a great congratulations and thanks for making this happen. My congrats and thanks also go out to all all those other people involved in the making and distribution of The Anonymous People and ManyFaces1Voice.

‘The Masks of Addiction and Recovery’ by Bill White

December 29, 2013

There is a discrepancy for each of us between the internal self and the personas we project to others. Personal health, wholeness and integrity hinge in great measure on the degree to which these private and public selves can be brought into harmony. That reconciliation is potentially life-saving for persons seeking the metamorphosis from active addiction to long-term recovery.

It is a unique medical disorder whose effective management requires living as authentically and honestly as possible, and yet it is that precise aspect that leaves many people viewing addiction recovery as a priceless gift that far transcends freedom from destructive drug use.

What makes this journey towards authenticity so much more hazardous within addiction recovery compared to the parallel journey for others is the degree of duplicity at the very heart of the addiction experience. Addiction hollows one out, leaving only the mask of the moment. With every repetition of use, the drug becomes more powerful and the self becomes weaker, its boundaries and internal substance fading, leaving only accumulating secrets in its wake.

‘Community Recovery’ by Bill White

December 10, 2013

Another excellent paper by Arthur Evans, Roland Lamb and Bill White, highlighted in the latter’s recent blog.

“In the Red Road to Wellbriety, the individual, family and community are not separate; they are one. To injure one is to injure all; to heal one is to heal all.” The Red Road to Wellbriety, 2002

As a field, we have long known that the effects of personal addiction ripple through families, social networks and organizations. But might whole communities and whole cultures be so wounded by prolonged alcohol and other drug problems that they are themselves in need of a sustained recovery process? This suggestion is the premise of a new paper co-authored by Dr. Arthur Evans, Jr., Roland Lamb and myself just published in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly.

‘The Passing of a Pioneer’ by Bill White

November 21, 2013

“That’s the issue [recovery]: it is not about any of us. It is to keep our eye on the prize, which is what drove most of us into this field in the first place. And that prize is the person who’s in recovery and seeing them grow.”

Here is a touching obituary of a special person in the recovery field, David Powell PhD. Bill White talks about David’s contribution and highlights his passion, drive and dedication. He also touches upon the pressing issue of finding new passionate leaders in the recovery field.

‘David Powell, PhD, who recently assumed the position of Assistant Clinical Professor within the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, is not a person who needs introduction to an audience of addiction professionals and recovery advocates, but some readers may not yet know that David died in a fall at his home on November 1, 2013.

David was ever-present within the addictions field for more than four decades. His work addressed many frontier issues within the field, but he is probably best known for his pioneering work to enhance the quality of clinical supervision in addiction treatment. He pushed this agenda through his numerous publications, frenetic presentation schedule and through consultations with leading addiction treatment organizations.

Bill White on Stigma and the New Recovery Movement

September 13, 2013

Here is a really powerful film clip from Bill White. Please pass the link on.

“Almost everyone in America know someone in recovery. The problem historically is that they did not know they were in recovery which means that they can continue to maintain incredible stereotypes about who are the people who develop alcohol and other drug problems in this country and who are the people who recover and don’t recover.

There are a lot of issues about stigma that I cannot educate you out of. I cam give you all the facts. I can read all the books to you. I can show you documentaries but nothing is going to change that embedded prejudice until you encounter personally someone in recovery who means something to you and hear their story.”

Category: Blog Tags: addiction, bill white, prejudice, Recovery Movement, solution, stigma, story, The Anonymous People

‘Recovery Stories from the 19th Century’ by Bill White

September 10, 2013

Here is a fascinating addition to Bill White’s website, a series of Recovery Stories from the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

‘In the minds of the public and many helping professionals, the history of addiction recovery in the United States begins with the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in the mid-1930s.

That view, of course, obscures the long history of pre-AA recovery mutual aid. That earlier history spans the eighteenth century rise of abstinence-based religious and cultural revitalization movements (recovery circles) within Native American tribes and nineteenth century groups such as the Washingtonians, recovery-focused fraternal temperance societies, the Ribbon Reform Clubs and recovery support groups associated with early addiction treatment programs (the Ollapod Club, Godwin Association, Keeley Leagues).