Blog

Our latest release is an Interview with Tim Leighton, in which the abundance of value and values comes across very strongly. In this conversation, we have managed to catch from Tim a beautiful integration of community, educational, personal, political, professional, research and theoretical understandings about recovery.

I just wanted to remind you about our five sections of Extras that you can find on our website. They contain a wide range of content (66 pieces) that I have written over the years for our sister website Recovery Stories. Sections include one with 15 articles about addiction, recovery and treatment, some focused on Wired In research...

In such a short space of time, the charity, set up by Aidan Martin and Mark Deans, has seen more than 1,100 attendees at its various workshops, including creative writing, lego, film making and art. An incredible 200 people turned up to the film group's premiere video. The charity also carries out work in Addiewell Prison...

'It means that we must actively heal the community and its institutions at the same time an individual works on his or her own healing from alcohol or drugs or other unwell behaviours. The individual affects the community and the community affects the individual. They are inseparable from the point of view of addiction recovery.'

I am inspired and deeply moved by the 'No Shame' Campaign that ARC Fitness organised in 2021. Gary Rutherford ran five marathons in five days, all while wearing a 22lb weight vest to symbolise the heavy burden of shame that often acts as a barrier to recovery. He fractured his leg on the second day, but continued...

'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...