One of the great pleasures in my working life has been to meet people in recovery from addiction. Many have been through so much adversity before they became addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, experienced even more problems when addicted, and then had to face the challenges that come with embarking on, and maintaining, a recovery journey. And after all that, many of the same people go on to help others recover from addiction and other life problems. I’m proud to say that some of my best friends are in recovery from addiction.
Society stigmatises people with substance use problems. Some people who have overcome serious substance use problems remain stigmatised by so-called normal people.
We should be celebrating people who are in recovery from addiction. And this is exactly what happened at the recent Recovery in Motion Conference in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, organised by ARC Fitness.
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 their celebratory medal and the audience continually clapped.