‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ Margaret Mead, US cultural anthropologist
On May 1 this year I started a daily Recovery Voices blog series, Transforming Pain Into Power, to celebrate the 10-Year Anniversary of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC). This resulted in a total of 38 blog posts which comprised stories and other forms of content. I’ve prepared them into a manuscript, for which I have written a Prologue which you read below. It’s a backstory, outlining my journey and ‘learnings’ and inspirational moments, which have allowed me to ultimately appreciate how awesome NWRC and its members really are. We aim to release the material as a short book in the future. Here goes:
My journey to writing this short book began 25 years ago, after I decided to leave a successful career as a neuroscientist studying brain mechanisms relating to mental health problems and addiction. I walked away from this biomedical approach because I realised that there was no simple link between brain chemicals and so-called mental health problems. I believe that long-term use of psychiatric drugs causes more harm than good. I also realised that neuroscience had little to contribute to helping people recover from addiction.
Whilst I continued as a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wales Swansea, as it was then known, I started spending a good deal of time at a local addiction treatment agency, WGCADA (West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse), where I learnt a great deal about therapeutic factors that facilitate recovery from addiction, including the need for a holistic approach given the range of problems ‘clients’ often experience. I was inspired by a number of treatment agency workers, most of whom were in recovery, and by some of their clients.
Natalie told me that when she was using heroin she never knew anyone who had overcome heroin addiction, and that if I wanted to help people, I must tell the stories of people in recovery.
At the time I was visiting WGCADA, I was awarded a tender to evaluate all treatment projects in Wales supported by the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Fund during 2000-2002. I soon realised the major shortcomings in the UK treatment system, which were confirmed by my later work in England and Scotland. As a result, I developed a grassroots initiative, later known as Wired In, and a charity (Wired International Ltd), which aimed to empower individuals, families, and communities to help people recover from addiction.
We emphasised the need for empowerment—through hope, understanding (of the problem and solution) and gaining a sense of belonging—and connection. We conducted research, evaluations, told stories (written and film), and developed a unique online information network, which culminated in development of our online recovery community Wired In To Recovery, in which people supported each other and created a voice of recovery.
For four years, I wrote a popular bi-weekly education column for Drink and Drugs News, the leading UK magazine in the field. I worked with Simon Shepherd, CEO of the Federation of Drug and Alcohol Professionals (FDAP), and together we started to advocate for improvements in the treatment system.
The mainstream addiction treatment system at the time was focused on delivering the UK government-based drug strategy, which classed drug addiction as a criminal justice, rather than a health or social, issue. It focused on prescribing heroin addicts the opiate substitute methadone as a maintenance treatment.
It was ironic that having left a medical-related field behind me, I was now interacting with a system that was using a medical model and was focused on symptom management. It was disempowering, and few people were finding recovery—the ‘revolving door of treatment’ was a commonly heard phrase. The flawed system was resistant to change, despite expecting people seeking help to change. It blamed them if they failed to do so.
I was totally inspired by visiting BAC O’Connor (BAC) in Burton-on-Trent, a treatment service developed by Noreen Oliver (RIP), a person in long-term recovery. In 2004, we conducted a range of projects with BAC, one being a qualitative piece of research involving BAC clients that highlighted the key factors facilitating recovery. I was impressed by BAC’s approach to helping people integrate (back) into their local community, as well as how BAC impacted positively locally, in part by developing new community initiatives such as Langan’s Tea Rooms and RIOT Radio. BAC was a genuine recovery community, a community of healing.
I was strongly influenced by leading US recovery advocate William (Bill) White, and along with Tim Leighton of Action on Addiction, I arranged for Bill to give a long talk in London in 2009 to leading UK recovery advocates. Bill emphasised that a key component of recovery is establishing a meaningful and fulfilled life. Treatment may facilitate the initiation of recovery, but is not in a person’s life long enough to produce long-term recovery. People find long-term recovery through interactions in their social environment, in particular through networks of recovering people and recovery-related resources in their community.
In 2008, I moved to Perth, Western Australia, for personal reasons, but still periodically returned to the UK and maintained my recovery contacts. Despite my best efforts over a few years to promote recovery-oriented care in Perth, I was unable to facilitate change in a flawed treatment system. Whilst I had to close my Wired In to Recovery online community due to lack of funding in 2012, I developed a Recovery Stories website.
I became increasingly dismayed by the racism I saw towards Aboriginal peoples in Australia. I decided to learn more about Aboriginal peoples, and their culture and history. Through a book by Judy Atkinson, an inspiring Aboriginal woman, I learnt how the colonisation process created trauma amongst Aboriginal people that was unwittingly passed down the generations. This transgenerational trauma still has a profound impact today. I was also inspired by Judy’s description of the healing practices used by Aboriginal peoples to facilitate healing of trauma and its consequences.
I later spent a good deal of time learning about trauma and healing, and about Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). The latter approach, focusing on a community’s strengths and assets, is key to generating strong grassroots activity and facilitating change.
I started a project with Social Anthropologist John Stanton that focused on a local healing story, involving Aboriginal children in the 1940s who had been removed from their families and lived in squalor on a government settlement. These traumatised children were inspired by their white schoolteacher to create beautiful artworks that are still acclaimed around the world.
John and I created a website focused on this story, and I wrote an eBook using the voices of the key players in this unique healing story. This story illustrated the power of community (and connection) in facilitating healing, and how healing could become transgenerational. The inspirational book What Happened To You: Conversations On Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey provides a wealth of information relating to healing.
During Covid times, I made contact online with Wulf Livingston, an inspiring figure who has been involved with NWRC since its launch. He told me about this initiative and I decided to visit him in 2022. We launched the Recovery Voices website the following year, and I spent a week with NWRC and friends in April 2024. Whilst there, I realised that many factors that facilitate recovery and healing, and that I have learnt about and been inspired by during my journey, are present in NWRC and in what they do and achieve.
I hope this short book, based on our daily NWRC celebratory blog posts which began 1 May 2025, informs and inspires you.