Blog

I will be giving a talk at 19.00-21.00 on 12 September in Penrhyn Hall, the Council building in Bangor. Most of the talk will be different to the one I gave at Bwyd Da Bangor last year. You can see the film made by Eternal Media of that talk here. The second part of that talk focused on...

James Deakin came to sit with me when we got back to Penrhyn House. At the time, I didn’t really think that I could do all that was required to find long-term recovery. James congratulated me on my Snowden achievement, and explained that I didn’t need to focus on my whole...

The compelling evidence is that all psychopharmacology changes your brain chemistry, even though there’s absolutely no evidence that your brain chemistry is in any way aberrant. Thus, you will get nasty side effects, develop tolerance, and if you cease using ‘psych meds’...

Be authentic. The best stories are short, honest, intimate, humble, and full of heart. They don’t need embellishment, scintillating details, or unbelievable feats. They don’t need self-promotion or manipulation to make the protagonist heroic. The truth of recovery stands powerfully enough...

‘Addiction and recovery are more than something that happens inside someone. Each involves deep human needs in interaction with a social environment. For addicts, addiction meets a multiplicity of needs and the culture of addiction provides a valued cocoon where these needs can be, and historically have been, met.'

I believe that we who care about addiction and the environment must continue the heroic rescue work, but I also believe that the even more essential task is getting rid of “the-son of-a-bitch upstream,” i.e., the vicious cycle that is described by the global, historical view of addiction.

David describes two important questions about recovery communities or groups: Can the connectedness of recovery communities inspire similar changes more broadly across the wider community? Can they be the glue or the inspiration for re-engaging a range of excluded and marginalised groups and individuals?

James believes that trauma-related matters are badly under-resourced... He points out that numbers of men who were affected by institutional sexual abuse are ‘basically full-on addicts’ and have been for years. Everyday people only see these men’s addiction; they don’t see the traumatised children who sit behind it all.

We are fundamentally social creatures—our brains are wired to foster working and playing together. Trauma devastates the social-engagement system and interferes with cooperation, nurturing, and the ability to function as a productive member of the clan... Yet institutions that deal with traumatized children and adults all too often...

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...

He was a GP like me and he had drunk in a similar way to me and he had the same kind of consequences as me and he felt the same as me. He was a few years into his recovery and I identified and connected with him to the degree that I suddenly thought, “Oh my God, if he can do it, maybe I can do it.” I probably must have felt...

We know from an examination of our history that people typically recover in the context of community. It flourishes in environments where individuals feel a sense of belonging and purpose. In spaces of mattering. Places where people can share their gifts of recovery, what they have learned through transformation and earned...

Climbing is made up of a series of stages, moving from one foothold or one grip to another. One small movement followed by another… and then another. Concentration and focus are needed. In this regard, there is a close analogy with the recovery process.

Gary went to a running club and did the miles by himself. He loved that because ‘that was me in my head’. However, whenever he did strength training and CrossFit, it was community-focused. You did it in a group and everybody was in it together. In the ARC group sessions, when everybody does the same thing at the same time...

'And if you're ever looking for inspiration or a realisation of how well life is, all you've got to do is look at some of these guys and look at where they’re up to, what they’re going through, and what they’ve been dealing with. And nine times out of ten, they're doing it with a smile on their face as well.’