Recovery Stories Blog

As some of you know, I first launched Recovery Stories in May 2013, with the aim of helping individuals and families recover from addiction and mental health problems. A core element of the website was a series of 15 Recovery Stories related by people who had been affected by a serious substance use problem, either directly or indirectly.

In addition to these Stories, I uploaded over 700 posts on my blog, as well as a wealth of other content over the following two years. Although the website was still available for viewing after that time, I stopped posting on my blog whilst I worked on other projects, including the educational initiative Sharing Culture which focused on the healing of intergenerational trauma. Addiction and mental health problems are two consequences of trauma.

You may have seen the storytelling, education and healing online resource, The Carrolup Story, I developed with good friends John Stanton and Ash Whitney, and the eBook I published in June 2020, Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe. This fascinating project still continues.

Early last year, I had an itch. I started to scratch the itch. It got worse. That itch was a desire to start writing about addiction and mental recovery again. I contacted the people who had provided their stories for my Recovery Stories website and asked if I could include their original stories in an eBook. They agreed. Most agreed to include an update, seven years on, which either they wrote or I wrote after a number of interview sessions.

I then decided it was time to ‘reinvigorate’ the Recovery Stories website and start blogging regularly again. Ash Whitney who is from Cilfrew, Neath, in South Wales, agreed to help me with website development. I spent time adding new content and slowly removing some of the old redundant content. l reposted some of my favourite blogs from the past. We also made some structural changes to the website.

On 9th April 2021, I will be publishing a new eBook Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction, which contains the original Recovery Stories from this website, along with (in the majority of cases) an update to these stories seven years on. It’s been fascinating and exciting to hear what has been happening to our storytellers over these seven years.

But now, I am back blogging on Recovery Stories. If you don’t know me, you can find out about me and my Story here and here. If you know me from my old Wired In days, you can find out what I’ve been up to in recent years in my Story. There’s a lot more information in the About Us section.

I’d like to finish by making a request. Please tell your friends about the website and book, please. I want the content to reach as many people as possible. Tomorrow, I’ll talk a little about my strategy for the future development of Recovery Stories. David Clark, Perth, Western Australia.