David Clark — Page 16 — Recovery Stories

A Conversation with… Mark Gilman (Part 2 of 2)

March 11, 2022 by David Clark

The second of a two-part conversation that Toby Seddon had with Mark Gilman. ‘In this part, we pick up the story in 1999, when Mark moved from Lifeline to the Home Office. The conversation ranges widely, covering treatment, recovery, social justice and crime, reflecting the unique breadth of Mark’s contributions to the field.’

In this conversation, Mark talks about the time he was a regional manager for the National Treatment Agency (NTA).

‘There was actually some public opinion research done in the NTA which reiterated the idea that the primary beneficiary of many of the interventions was not individual people with drug problems themselves, with substance use disorder themselves, but the wider community.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: addiction treatment, crime reduction, mark gilman, methadone, NTA

A Wonderful Addiction Recovery Champion: Rowdy Yates RIP

February 25, 2022 by David Clark

I was deeply saddened to hear of the recent passing of one of the great Champions of the addiction recovery field, Rowdy Yates. I only met Rowdy a few times; one memorable occasion was when Mark Gilman and I travelled up to see him in Stirling in March 2009. However, I was well aware of his contribution to the field. We also emailed each other over the years, the last time being last year when Rowdy sent me copies of some of his papers and informed me that he was not well.

Rowdy was not only a Champion in his field of work, but was also a very talented musician and a wonderful guy. He had a HUGE personality and was very passionate about all in which he was involved. I once joked that if I could find the portal between Perth (Australia) and Perth (Scotland) I’d be seeing a lot more of him. I truly wish I had seen more of him. He was a big supporter of Wired In and the Wired In To Recovery online community, for which I will always be very grateful.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: European Federation of Therapeutic Communities, Lifeline, Recovery Champion, Rowdy Yates, Tribute

‘None of them will ever get better’ by Dr David McCartney

February 15, 2022 by David Clark

I love Dr David McCartney’s blogs. He writes so well about issues that really matter. He’s also a great guy who cares passionately about addiction recovery and recovering people. And he’s someone I always enjoy visiting when I am in the UK. [Can’t wait until the next visit!] Anyway, here’s David’s latest post on the Recovery Review blog.

Therapeutic nihilism

“None of them will ever get better”, the addiction doctor said to me of her patients, “As soon as you accept that, this job gets easier.”

This caution was given to me in a packed MAT (medication assisted treatment) clinic during my visit to a different city from the one I work in now. This was many years ago and I was attempting to get an understanding of how their services worked. I don’t know exactly what was going on for that doctor, but it wasn’t good. (I surmise burnout, systemic issues, lack of resources and little experience of seeing recovery happen).

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: addiction, david best, David McCartney, hope, peer support, recovery, recovery community, role models

‘Recovery Landscapes’ by Bill White

January 18, 2022 by David Clark

Here’s an excellent blog that leading recovery advocate Bill White posted in March 2014. I love the phrase ‘Recovery Landscape’. I first posted this blog on Recovery Stories on 14 March, 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.”

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: bill white, community, healing forest, recovery landscape, recovery resources

A Conversation with… Mark Gilman (part 1 of 2)

January 13, 2022 by David Clark

Please check out this wonderful conversation between Mark Gilman and Toby Seddon. I know Mark from my days working in the UK addiction recovery field. He’s one of my favourite people working in the field and we’ve got together a number of times during my visits back to the UK (and Manchester). I knew that Mark had worked at Lifeline in Manchester and played a pivotal role in the emerging harm reduction approach. I did not know about his early research on heroin use.

This is an absolutely fascinating interview. Here is what Toby wrote about the conversation and comments from two of the field’s stalwarts.

‘The first of a two-part conversation with Mark Gilman. Mark has been a major figure in the field over four decades and directly involved in many of the most significant developments we have seen. In this part, we talk about Mark’s early life, his work with the late Geoff Pearson researching heroin use in the North of England, and his pioneering work with Lifeline in the 1980s and 1990s.’ Toby Seddon

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: harm reduction, heroin use, Lifeline, mark gilman, Toby Seddon

‘Wiping Out Stigma’ by David McCartney

January 11, 2022 by David Clark

Here’s another excellent post from one of my favourite bloggers, David McCartney from Edinburgh in Scotland. It’s on a topic which is close to my heart—tackling stigma. Here is what David wrote on the Recovery Review blog recently.

‘Reducing the stigma associated with addiction – the word itself now tagged with a degree of stigma – is a priority in drugs policy. Stigmatising attitudes contribute to drug harms and deaths through delaying access to treatment, leaving treatment early and increased risk-taking behaviour.

Brea Perry and her colleagues at Indiana University took a look [1] at the scale of the problem of stigma for non-medical prescription opioid use and dependence in a representative sample of over a thousand adults in the USA.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Brea Perry, David McCartney, opiate use, Patrick Corrigan, shame, stigma

Reflecting on People in Recovery from Addiction: Alexandre Laudet

January 10, 2022 by David Clark

I hold many people who have recovered, or are recovering, from addiction in the highest regard. The courage they have shown in turning around their lives is amazing. They have gone on to do wonderful things. They have helped other people on the path to recovery. And they have taught me so much about addiction and recovery. Some of these people are my best friends.

Whilst working my way through past blogs on this website—some needed cleaning out of the database because, for example, the film links have disappeared—I came across two blogs from Alexandre Laudet. Alexandre was Director of the Center for the Study of Addictions and Recovery at the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc at the time and had been conducting a good deal of research focused on addiction recovery. I was particularly taken by what Alexandre had to say about people in recovery in the second of her blogs, shown below:

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: alexandre laudet, determination, gratitude, recovering people

‘I was a heroin addict and had given up on myself. Then suddenly, briefly, I felt a desire to live’ by John Crace

January 4, 2022 by David Clark

‘What I heard at Narcotics Anonymous changed my life’ … John Crace. Photograph: Pauline Keightley/Bridgeman Images

Yesterday, I posted a blog from one of my favourite journalists, John Crace, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer, about his past heroin addiction. John had been in recovery for 32 years at the time of writing that article. Here is a second article by John about his addiction and recovery, which appeared on 27 December 2021.

‘At my lowest point, I sought self-annihilation. I was saved at the last moment by two of the few people I had not pushed away.

It was a Saturday night in early October 1986. My 30th birthday party, or what passed for it. Just a handful of junkies and my few remaining friends sitting on the floor of a grey, bare room in a flat in south London. I had thought it would be fun, as, for once, there was no shortage of heroin. Instead, I felt wretched.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: heroin addiction, John Crace, mental health, Narcotics Anonymous, recovery, rock bottom

‘How I Overcame my Heroin Addiction – and Started to Live’ by John Crace

January 3, 2022 by David Clark

John Crace, who became addicted to heroin in his early 20s. Photograph: Theo Moye/apexnewspix.com

One of my favourite newspaper writers is John Crace, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer. He writes really well, challenges the political system and politicians (hitting all the nails on the head), and possesses a wicked sense of humour. Imagine my surprise when I discovered by reading one of John’s articles that he is a recovering heroin addict. Here is that article, straight from the Guardian of 25 March 2019.

‘Deciding to give up the drugs was easy. But Narcotics Anonymous meetings got me through the really hard bit – staying off them for good

It was one of the easier decisions I have made. So easy that I must have made it hundreds of times over the best part of 10 years. The first time, I was in my early 20s and had woken to find I had cramps, sweats and felt wretchedly sick. That was when I knew what I had fondly imagined was recreational drug use had slipped into full-on heroin addiction. This has got to stop now, I told myself. A couple of days of cold turkey and then get back on with my life – a decision that lasted as long as it took to get up and go to score.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: heroin addiction, John Crace, Narcotics Anonymous, recovery

‘A Personal Story’ by Wee Willie Winkie

November 11, 2021 by David Clark

Here’s a story we first ran on our online community Wired In To Recovery in September 2010. I then posted it on Recovery Stories in June 2013.

‘I’m 33 years old. I started taking drugs from ten years old and, apart from a three and a half year stint in the army, took them continuously right up to the age of 30. This included 11 years as a heroin addict.

During this time, I felt totally isolated and alone in the world, and completely worthless. After a few years I was desperate. I’d overdosed a couple of times and, at this point in my life, I’d have welcomed death with open arms. It never came, so I decided to help it along a bit.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: heroin addiction, isolation, methadone, prison, recovery, SMART Recovery

‘What Happened?: What mental health is really about’ by Bill Saunders

November 8, 2021 by David Clark

Some of you will will know that I believe that the biomedical approach to mental health—using drugs to treat what are considered to be biochemical disorders—causes more harm than good.

Over this weekend, I have been reading an excellent book by Clinical Psychologist and educator Bill Saunders, a Perth-based man. What Happened?: What mental health is really about is well-worth reading.

‘If you consult a psychiatrist for assistance with a mental health problem you will be subjected to the “What’s wrong with you?” approach. You will be assessed, diagnosed and then treated, most commonly with a pill to combat your purportedly biologically based ill.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Bill Saunders, childhood trauma, mental health, psychiatry, psychotherapy

‘A Personal Story’ by Kerrie

November 4, 2021 by David Clark

This very moving Story was written for our Wired In To Recovery website in August 2011. I published it on Recovery Stories in August 2013.

‘Hi, my name is Kerrie. I am 37 years old. Both my parents died as a result of heroin addiction. My mum when I was 8 years old and she was 28, and my dad when I was 15 and he was 43.

I grew up in the madness of their addiction; needless to say we were a very dysfunctional family. I don’t remember my parents ever getting any real support. The only people involved with our family were the police and social services.

I learnt at a very young age to tell them nothing, as I knew if I told someone, for instance, that my sister and I had been left alone or had not eaten properly for a few days, that my parents would get in trouble. And I was fiercely loyal and very protective of them.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 12-step, ACOA, addiction, family, hope, recovery, treatment

‘The Astonishing Power of Example’ by Peapod

November 2, 2021 by David Clark

Here is a post from one of my favourite bloggers on our online recovery community Wired In To Recovery, which dates back to April 2009.

‘Astonishment. That’s what I felt the first time I was taken to a mutual aid group meeting.

I was in treatment at the time in a residential centre. I was also neck deep in trouble. I had lost my job through my using. As part of the fallout from my own million megaton addiction detonation, I’d caused someone else to lose their job. The police were on my tail and I was massively in debt.

I didn’t particularly want to be in treatment, but I’d run out of alternatives. As the detox began to bite (and my god, the teeth were sharp), the permanent fog in my head began to clear. This was not a good thing.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: hope, mutual aid, peapod, peer support, recovering addicts, recovery

The Future of Addiction Treatment: Bill White

October 14, 2021 by David Clark

The following quote is taken from one of my favourite books, Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America by William L White.

‘During the past 150 years, “treatment” in the addictions field has been viewed as something that occurs within an institution – a medical, psychological, and spiritual sanctuary isolated from the community at large.

In the future, this locus will be moved from the institution to the community itself. Treatment will be viewed as something that happens in indigenous networks of recovering people that exist within the broader community.

The shift will be from the emotional and cognitive processes of the client to the client’s relationship in a social environment. With this shift will come an expansion of the role of the clinician to encompass skills in community organization.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: community, recovery, slaying the dragon, treatment, William White

‘My Recovery: A Seminar Opening Speech’ by Adam Brookes

October 13, 2021 by David Clark

It’s amazing to think that Adam Brookes and I have now been great friends for over ten years, although we’ve been on opposite sides of the world for much of that time. Not any more! Here is a blog concerning Adam that I wrote back in May 2013.

I first met Adam back in 2010 and he quickly became someone very important in my life, a really good friend. He was close to my partner Linda and to my three youngest children who were living with us at the time. I saw that Adam had that something special, that empathic and caring nature that helps people get better. I knew that he was going to help many people.

Adam spent a number of years living in the U.K., but now lives happily in New Zealand. Here is a five-minute speech that he gave to open the Fresh Start Recovery Seminar in Perth in July 2011. Wow, over ten years ago!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: blogging, emotions, family, gratitude, hope, kindness, recovery

What is a Recovery Carrier?: Bill White

October 12, 2021 by David Clark

Have you ever come across someone who just emanates recovery? I’ve certainly met quite a few and they really are special people. Here is an article from 2012 where Bill White talks about these sorts of people, Recovery Carriers. I first posted this article on Recovery Stories in June 2013.

‘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.

The recovery carrier is in many ways the opposing face of the addiction carrier – the person who defends his or her own drug use by spreading excessive patterns of use to all those he or she encounters. The pathology of addiction is often spread from one infected person to another; some individuals are particularly contagious.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: charisma, community, infectious, language, recovery carrier, William White

Busy Time Ahead

October 11, 2021 by David Clark

Now I’m 67-years old (yikes, that sounds crazy), I guess that I should be slowing down and enjoying life here in Perth. Well, I am enjoying life, other than hugely missing my children and grandchildren in the UK, but I don’t seem to be slowing down.

I’ve now got a very busy few weeks ahead. Firstly, I’m just preparing the last bits I need before submitting my book Carrolup to a publisher. [The tag line of the book, which would appear on the cover, is A true story of Aboriginal child artists challenging a government’s racist policies.] For those of you who are interested, you can download a short version of this story in an article I wrote this year for the Journal of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society (Number 104, 2020). One of the children’s artworks is shown on the cover of this Journal.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ABCD, Carrolup, community, connection, Kojonup

Quitting Use of Cocaine

October 5, 2021 by David Clark

For a period of four years from 15th November 2004, I wrote a series of Background Briefings for Drink and Drugs News (DDN), the leading UK magazine focused on drug and alcohol treatment. I am slowly uploading these briefings on Recovery Stories as I have time.

Three of these briefings are focused on cocaine—The Drug Experience: Cocaine. In the first part, I explore the dynamic world of heavy cocaine use as revealed in a provocative, high-quality study by Dan Waldorf and colleagues. This research, conducted in the US in the 1980s, challenged many of the prevailing myths about cocaine.

In the second part, I point out that while cocaine is generally portrayed as having a very high addiction potential, the majority of people who use the drug do not have a problem. The research by Dan Waldorf and colleagues reveals a number of social and social psychological factors that influence how a person uses a drug.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: cocaine, craving, Dan Waldorf, ethnography, identity, quitting, recovery, social factors

‘We Are Meant to Heal in a Community’ by Douglas Bloch

October 4, 2021 by David Clark

One of the key messages that I have been putting out over the years that I have worked in the recovery/healing field is about the importance of community. Here is an excellent article from Douglas Bloch—author, mental health educator and a depression survivor—about the healing power of community which he published in 2013 on the Mad in America website. I first highlighted this blog on Recovery Stories in early 2014.

‘“Anything that promotes a sense of isolation often leads to illness and suffering, while that which promotes a sense of love and intimacy, connection and community, is healing.” Dean Ornish

In my last blog, I talked about how I was attempting to cope with a “mini-relapse” without using psychiatric drugs. One Sunday morning in the midst of this episode I awoke in a particularly dismal state. I didn’t have a structure planned for the day. And without something to look forward to, both my anxiety and depression increased.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: community, connection, depression, douglas bloch, fellowship, healing, love, recovery