recovery — Page 17 — Recovery Stories

Knowing what to do to support recovery

September 23, 2013

Here’s an excellent description of ‘tasks’ for treatment workers, recovery coaches or peer supporters. This quote is taken from Stephanie Brown’s excellent book The Alcoholic Family in Recovery: A Developmental Model.

‘Being in recovery is a normal process, with clearly defined, predictable tasks and stages. It is absolutely vital for therapists to know what is normal over time in the process of recovery or they may inadvertently try to treat, stop, or fix what is normal and necessary to growth.

It is the therapists job to stay out of the way of the natural healing process, to monitor progress, and to recognize past or current roadblocks that might interfere with people’s ability to remain abstinent and engaged in recovery.

Kathy’s Recovery Minute

September 21, 2013

“I’d like to stress that one day does not go by that I don’t think about the life I took. I don’t forget that a child grew up without her father and that a mother’s heart was broken because of my choices, including again my own mother.”

“I live a life now full of blessings and I tell my Story as often as I can, so if I can at least save one life, make one change to somebody when they hear my words, it will make at least some part of this tragedy and pain have some type of meaning for the positive. Thank you.” Kathy of CCAR (Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery)

Category: Blog Tags: 12-step, CCAR, choices, denial, prescription drugs, prison, recovery, road accident death

‘Madness!’ By Maddie

September 20, 2013

‘So close to one year sobriety now and I’ve been reflecting a lot. The biggest thing for me at the moment is being so aware of the insanity and madness in which I used to live. I totally understand what insanity and madness mean now.

How insane to think it was a good idea to steal drugs from a dealer who was a biker and his girlfriend often had a black eye? How insane was it to think it was a good idea to have sex with strangers for money…

Towards the end of my using heavily, I would pick up my drugs from my dealer, go to work for the day (in the bathhouse), only to have to pay for more drugs on the way home. Insane! I was effectively making no money, as I was drugging away every single cent I earned!

Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: addiction, dealer, drugging, insanity, madness, recovery, reflections, stress

‘The problem with instant graftification’ by Matt Kay

September 20, 2013

Here’s another excellent blog that Matt Kay submitted to Wired In To Recovery.

‘Our world today is based upon instant gratification. Taking into consideration all of the technology that allows us to get what we want right when we want it, it’s really no wonder that we are trying to apply that standard to our emotional state.

Think of all the ways that people use drugs or alcohol pertaining to instant gratification. If you are having a stressful day – pop a pill and feel de-stressed. If you are feeling a little social anxiety or lack of confidence in a situation – have a few drinks and get some liquid courage.

Independent film producer shines light on addiction and recovery

September 20, 2013

Leslie Glass and her daughter Lindsey Glass have just made their second documentary about recovery. Here is a film clip and report from YourObserver.

At a 2011 luncheon for the premiere of her first documentary film, “The Secret World of Recovery,” Leslie Glass remembers hearing a collective gasp as she told the crowd of nearly 400 people that she was the mother of a recovering addict. It was the first time she’d ever told anyone.

“When you come out with it for the first time, you have a sense of shame about it,” she says. “What did I do wrong as a parent that I have a child who’s had these difficulties? I think that’s so common; people don’t want other people to know.”

Read More ➔

Category: Blog, Family Tags: addiction, daughter, documentary, family, mother, prevention, recovery, stigma

Lifetime Achievement Award for Pat Deegan

September 18, 2013

You can find Pat Deegan and her wonderful mental health recovery work on this website in a number of places – just check out by searching. Pat has just won a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. Here is what she said on her PDA website:

‘Last week I was presented with a lifetime achievement award by the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.

My friends Sally Zinman, Jacki McKinney and Gayle Bluebird also received awards. I really enjoyed the way the award ceremony was handled. Harvey Rosenthal had 5 big armchairs arranged on the keynote stage with mics in front of each. We were presented with our awards and then had the opportunity to address three questions:

I refuse to feel ashamed

September 18, 2013

Here is an interesting blog on Life Unbuzzed. Everyone’s recovery is just as valuable as anyone else’s. And everyone has a choice of what they do with their recovery, e.g. go public or not, become a recovery advocate or not. Here, husband and wife take different ways forward.

‘Last week, my husband and I went to see a screening of the film The Anonymous People (which I recommend), sponsored by a local recovery support organization. The theater was packed and I felt bathed in a warm and welcoming vibe.

This was the first gathering of sober people that I’ve been a part of and I loved the sense of belonging. (Yeah, we’re all sober, dammit, and we’re proud!)

Anna’s Moment of Clarity

September 17, 2013

Anna’s brother had developed a heroin addiction and she was becoming overwhelmed by the whole situation.

In her Recovery Story, here’s the lead up to Anna’s Moment of Clarity:

‘After this incident in the city, I became unhealthily obsessed with finding out as much as I could about heroin, as well as trying to monitor my brother’s behaviour and uncover his lies. I read every book I could get my hands on, including a few books I’d had as a teenager – Go Ask Alice, Junky and H: Diary of a Heroin Addict.

Maetta Broadus on ManyFaces1Voice

September 14, 2013

“Once you’re an addict and once you are seen in society as an addict or an alcoholic you’re an abnormal to society. You are something that no one wants in their community. you’re that things that they have to hide.

The stigma is that they’re doing it because they want to. But my experience is that I didn’t become a drug addict because I wanted to.”

See Maetta Broadus speak on ManyFaces1Voice, the website promoting The Anonymous People film. Maetta is a community activist and recovery ambassador from Kentucky. She serves on the board of People Advocating Recovery, belongs to Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and is a certified recovery dynamics instructor.

Category: Blog Tags: activist, addict, ambassador, childhood memories, recovery, stigma, story, The Anonymous People

‘What Amy Winehouse’s Birthday Means to Me’ by Beth Burgess

September 14, 2013

Beth is really getting prolific at the Huffington Post. I’ll keep pushing her blogs out as I like her writing. So here we go again.

‘I was 27 when I decided to stop drinking; the same age at which Amy Winehouse sadly died while in the throes of her own battle with the booze. Although I didn’t find immediate recovery after my initial decision to quit, I was already sober when Amy’s death was announced in July 2011.

Even though the rest of the world seemed to be expecting the news, I recall feeling shocked to hear of the British singer’s death. It’s part of the mental block among alcoholics, where you downplay the consequences of drinking. I never thought the worst would happen to me. I never thought it would happen to her. She probably never thought it would either. It’s classic denial.

‘No-one is broken, just lost’ by Beth Burgess

September 13, 2013

Here’s Beth’s latest from the Huffington Post.

‘From around the age of nineteen, I considered myself a broken person; I was an alcoholic, a prostitute and was plagued by a crippling anxiety disorder. Little did I know that one day it would all be resolved, proving that nothing about me was broken, only lost.

If I had been broken, I would never have been able to get over my litre-of-gin per day habit. I would never have ever been able to walk outside without shaking and sweating with fear. I would never have been able to turn my life around to such a degree that I now help others who are suffering as much as I was.

Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: alcoholic, belief, beth burgess, broken, guide, lost, path, recovery

Kevan’s Moment of Clarity

September 11, 2013

A Moment of Clarity for Kevan Martin, taken from his Recovery Story. After spending 25 years problem drinking and eight years in and out of psychiatric hospitals, Kevan runs NERAF which has nearly 100 staff and volunteers and provides a support service across the north-east of England.

‘One Sunday evening, when I was out trying to tire myself out, I walked past a church. I believe in God, but I am not a religious or spiritual person by any means. However, I felt this overwhelming urge to turn back and enter the church.

I sat at the back of the church watching the congregation sing and started to feel comfortable, relaxed and at ease. I must have fallen asleep, as I didn’t realise that people had left until the Vicar woke me.

‘It’s called the past for a reason’ by Matt Kay

September 8, 2013

Here’s an early blog from one of my favourite Wired In To Recovery bloggers, Matt Kay.

‘For all of us in recovery, irrespective of our substance of choice, it’s important to remember to always keep things in perspective.

As addicts, we craved our drug and wanted it immediately and always wanted more. Likewise, in recovery we crave abstinence or sobriety and cannot understand why the little devil on our shoulders just won’t take a long sprint off a short pier!

A friend of mine (eight months sober) rang me recently and, in floods of tears, said they couldn’t understand why they had been out ‘for just one drink’. During this moment of his intoxication, I had a chat, calmed him down, and advised a good night’s sleep and we’d talk again in the morning.

Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: alcoholism, choice, negatives, perspective, recovery, regret, the past, today

‘A healed and healthy country: understanding healing for Indigenous Australians’ by Tamara Mackean

September 7, 2013

Yesterday, I blogged about a description of healing by Professor Helen Milroy, an Aboriginal Child Psychiatrist and Australia’s first Aboriginal doctor. This wonderful description of healing was also included in the article below which appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia, but here I focus on the rest of the article.

Of course, much of what is said here is relevant to recovery, because recovery is healing. I have highlighted some sentences that I think are particularly relevant to people working in the recovery field worldwide, whatever their cultural background.

‘The Apology by the Prime Minister to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia in February 2008 was the first step in a significant healing journey.

‘The Nature of Healing’ by Professor Helen Milroy

September 6, 2013

I have recently started collaborating with an Aboriginal lady here in Perth, Dr Marion Kickett, who is an Associate Professor at Curtin University. We’re very excited about the project we are developing, along with my close friend and filmmaker Mike Liu.

I have been fascinated reading about aboriginal history, culture, health, historical trauma – more of which I will talk about in later blogs – and many other things. During this time, I have become very interested in the concept of Aboriginal healing.

Yesterday, I was chatting with good friend Christina Burki about healing and she loaned me a fascinating book Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari. In the Foreword, I found this delightful description of healing (I have altered the paragraphs):

Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: aboriginal, balance, generational, harmony, healing, journey, recovery, renewal

Phil’s Recovery Minute

September 3, 2013

“… There is hope for everyone. And for me hope stands for, ‘Hang On Peace Exists’.

And I found peace after twenty five years. But it didn’t come easily, it didn’t come quickly. It came one day at a time and putting one foot in front of the other.

And here I am. I feel peaceful. I intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle me. I have the love and respect of my family and I love and respect them. I have an incredible staff to work with each and every day, and my life is filled beyond measure.

Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: CCAR, family, hope, peaceful, Phil Valentine, recovery, respect, workmates

What facilitates recovery from mental health problems?

August 30, 2013

I was looking through my old blogs on Wired In To Recovery and came across this one.

The blog is based on a paper by Wendy Brown and Niki Kandirikirira, entitled “Recovering Mental Health in Scotland: Report on Narrative Investigation of Mental Health Recovery”. It’s the 19th manuscript in the list on this page.

‘This research involved the recovery narratives of 64 individuals in Scotland who identified themselves as being in recovery or recovered from a long-term mental health problems.

Changing Education Paradigms: Animate from Sir Ken Robinson

August 29, 2013

Although you might think this film is not strictly related to addiction recovery, I assure you that it is. Education plays a key role in recovery, as does the way we are taught to think.

I love this talk, as well as the use of the animate. Sir Ken is a leader in the education field and you can find a number of videos of his talks on YouTube. I agree with him wholeheartedly that we need to change the way we educate young people (and old!)

And there are some interesting facts about the prescribing of drugs in the treatment of ADHD.

Read More ➔

Category: Blog Tags: ADHD, animate, education, innovation, Ken Robinson, recovery, RSA, young people

‘The Work of Recovery’ by Bill White

August 27, 2013

I missed this very important recent posting on Bill White’s website which is well worth reading.

‘Research on addiction recovery is quite scant compared to the volumes of research on addiction-related pathologies and clinical interventions. Additionally, some of the most important research on addiction recovery is buried in academic journals, rarely if ever read by the people who need it most – addiction treatment professionals and people needing, seeking or in recovery. Such is the case of studies on the role of work in addiction recovery.

In 2011, Dieter Henkel of the Institute for Addiction Research at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt, Germany, conducted a comprehensive review of international studies on the relationship between substance use and employment that was published in Current Drug Abuse Reviews (4, 4-27). Henkel drew the following conclusions from his review of more than 130 scientific studies:

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

August 26, 2013

Shame plays a major role in keeping people locked in addiction. Shame of what a person has become through their addiction, and how it has affected relationships with loved ones and friends, can drive people to more self-medication in efforts to alleviate the feelings experienced.

In the section Books to facilitate your recovery, I have recommended Brene Brown’s latest book Daring Greatly, which is well worth a read. Brene is a shame researcher who has become a major name in the past few years, in part due to her having the second most viewed TEDx talk. I guess 10.7 million views is what you call viral.

Here’s what I said about Daring Greatly:

“Every now and again, I read a book that I immediately read again (this time using a marker), and then keep picking up to read various bits that I have highlighted. This is the latest of such books.

Knowing what to do to support recovery

Kathy’s Recovery Minute

‘Madness!’ By Maddie

‘The problem with instant graftification’ by Matt Kay

Independent film producer shines light on addiction and recovery

Lifetime Achievement Award for Pat Deegan

I refuse to feel ashamed

Anna’s Moment of Clarity

Maetta Broadus on ManyFaces1Voice

‘What Amy Winehouse’s Birthday Means to Me’ by Beth Burgess

‘No-one is broken, just lost’ by Beth Burgess

Kevan’s Moment of Clarity

‘It’s called the past for a reason’ by Matt Kay

‘A healed and healthy country: understanding healing for Indigenous Australians’ by Tamara Mackean

‘The Nature of Healing’ by Professor Helen Milroy

Phil’s Recovery Minute

What facilitates recovery from mental health problems?

Changing Education Paradigms: Animate from Sir Ken Robinson

‘The Work of Recovery’ by Bill White

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

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