Blog

My first talk, 'My Journey From Brain Chemicals to Human Connection' mentions my career as a neuroscientist and then highlights what I learnt and the people who inspired me whilst I have since worked in the addiction recovery field, where I Iaunched the grassroots initiative Wired In.

‘Belonging and being loved are core to the human experience. We are a social species. We are meant to be in community, emotionally, socially and physically interconnected with others. If you look at the fundamental organisation and functioning of the human body, including the brain you will see that so much of...'

We covered a good deal of ground in the discussion including: how the four of us have come to be in the room together; our  individual connections with recovery; a far-reaching discussion on the nature of recovery and how it works, in particular with reference to Eternal...

'Change does not merely imply stopping use, but redefining one's entire life. It is not just about escaping addiction, but escaping the context that makes addiction meaningful, and catching up with the demands of an institutional life that they may have little or no...'

In her conversation with Wulf, Rhoda points out that when you ask people what worked most for them, they say, 'Someone  listened to me. They truly heard me and understood me.' Rhoda goes on to say: 'There are general universal things that we need to do to respond well to...'

Please check out the following short film about the 2024 Recovery Walk NI (Northern Ireland) which took place on Saturday, 28 September, a Walk organised by ARC Fitness and their local partners. I was so moved by what I viewed! Please also check out the photos from Derry Now...

I was thrilled to hear that on 1 July this year, Wendy Dossett received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the category of Recovery Researcher from Deirdre Boyd of DBRecovery at the UKESAD Conference at the Chelsea Harbour Hotel. The wording on the certificate reads...

Please check out three posts I have added to the Stories section of our website for one of our later Recovery Voices, Tim Leighton, a person who has greatly inspired me over the years. A few years into his personal recovery from addiction, Tim started work at Clouds House (a residential treatment centre) as a counsellor in 1985...

When we eliminate power asymmetries between professionals and service users – accepting that the patient and their family have lived expertise, offer meaningful choice (not only which medication to use), accept that the client’s goals may be different from...

The first film clip below involve rehab, busking, writing a play, and touring as a director of the play. But then Marcus was back to drugs and the streets… and HMP. He describes this prison visit, which involved running the prison radio and doing some filming, as saving his life. 

'... if we are to support those that experience problems we need to understand them as people first and foremost: what drives the inner experience of use of drugs and alcohol, what drives change and how people not only identify a different kind of of life, but also how...

The most dramatic illustration of the role of ‘social context’ centres around heroin addiction and the widespread use by American soldiers of heroin and opium during the Vietnam War. It involved one of the most ambitious and interesting research studies ever undertaken on use of psychoactive drugs.

At a very early stage, James and colleagues realised that they needed to ‘cover all the bases’ in relation to mutual aid. People were given a variety of options. If the person couldn’t relate to the 12-Step approach, they could try SMART Recovery, and if that didn’t work they could try...

'And I've come to understand, and this is probably one of the key learnings for me over a very long time, I've come to understand the idea of commissioning recovery is an oxymoron. And for anyone who's not quite sure what the word oxymoron means, it's when you stick two words...'

Please check out this magical video from ARC Fitness that shows Gary Rutherford, Founder of this amazing recovery community, introducing a celebration of those people in the conference hall  who are in recovery from addiction. All taking place to the wonderful Coldplay song A Sky Full of Stars. For me, tears welled up as people received...