Blog

'Barring any last minute relapses, tomorrow will be the 37th anniversary of my getting clean. No drugs, no alcohol. I call that a result. I had no idea what I was doing really when the 30-year-old me walked through the entrance of the rehab centre on the morning of 9 March 1987. I had even brought a cassette player...' 8 March

I spent an interesting early evening last Friday here in Perth, Western Australia, when I joined members of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) at their Community Meeting & Breakfast (I didn't get any) at Penrhyn House in Bangor... via Zoom. I was able to see and hear guest...

When a drug is classified as illegal or prohibited, a powerful social stigma develops that impacts on the emotions and behaviour of people who use the substance. This arises because of the attitudes of society towards users of prohibited drugs—drug users become...

The heroin user who has been traumatised by sexual or physical abuse as a child will not only feel the powerful analgesic effects of the drug—helping them to deal with their psychological pain—but may also benefit from relationships and experiences within the social setting in which they take heroin. The people who they take the drug with may have experienced similar abuse in their...

Huseyin takes me through various parts of my journey, including my neuroscience career, recovery advocacy work (Wired In), and the writing of an eBook about Aboriginal child artists which relates to the healing of trauma. We cover a range of recovery-related topics, including the power of story, the impact of trauma... 

'One of the big things that makes such a big difference is having an approach that is inclusive. That includes the person, the network, the family.’ Rhoda also points out that our personal wellbeing is tied up with our sense of belonging, with who is around us, and being loved...

Now, in my 70th year, I become even more conscious of what leading US recovery advocate Bill White says in his book 'Recovery Rising' about leaving a personal legacy for the field, so that others, and the field as a whole, can benefit from one’s personal knowledge, understanding...

... as I've moved along this recovery journey, I've realised that it is about trauma, when I look back at my life. It's also about not just trauma causing addiction, but trauma causing a dislocation of me from myself. The drugs and all the other stuff that came after that is a searching to reconnect to myself somehow.

NWRC attracted good supporters of the organisation, including high quality Trustees. As the complexity of the organisation increased, the Trustees came to include people with expertise in matters like law and finance. NWRC has now been separated into three different legal community interest companies—the residential...

David McCartney describes the negative reactions of a doctor who was assessing him as part of the process of determining whether he was eligible to receive benefits after he had come out of a treatment rehab. Huseyin relates how difficult it was talking about his past when he worked in the civil service, and then asks whether...

If we ask people what was most helpful to them they rarely describe our clever diagnosis and elaborate combinations of medications. They describe moments of human kindness and caring, of believing in them and inspiring hope, of listening to them and making them feel precious. Recovery is not a process in which illness is...

The visibility of recovery; the active sight of those in recovery being in, and giving back to, the wider community; the demonstration of what is possible; and even the possibility of successful change are all pivotal to individual and collective recovery. The direct challenge...

Alun provided so much support for people with alcohol-related issues. There are still three rehabs existing in Wales because of him. He did all this voluntarily. He used to bring home people who had nowhere to live and were drinking on the streets. Rhoda and her sisters used to...

I love working with people in recovery because I like people who are exceptionally genuine, motivated, and who seek to make great changes in their lives.... People in recovery inspire me. I love their candor, their accountability, their integrity, their humor, and...

Marion tells how Ruby was taken from her mother and trained as a domestic. She was raped on the station to which she was sent, and gave birth to a child who was removed. This did not happen just once… Ruby married and had three children. Alcohol numbed the pain of losing her first children and Ruby developed a drinking problem. She was imprisoned for manslaughter, but eventually overcame her problems. She needed to forgive before she could begin healing.