All Posts

31st October 2023

Feeling Anxious: Dr. David McCartney

We now know that our early life experiences can have a profound effect on what happens to us in later life, in relation to our physical, psychological and relational wellbeing as an adult. These adverse childhood experiences needn't be major, like serious physical violence. They can be more subtle,  but be repeated...
30th October 2023

Recovery Support, from Living Room to NERAF: Kevan Martin

So, Kevan invited people he knew with alcohol problems to join a support group which met in his living room. 'Word of mouth ensured that my home was soon packed with people I had met throughout my years of spinning through the revolving door of treatment.'
27th October 2023

On Being Straight: James Deakin

Living in Bangor, James decides he has to go straight. He pictures himself where he’d like to be and behaves in the appropriate way. ‘What would a straight person do in this situation?’ He gains a peace of mind from being legitimate. He doesn’t have to worry about anyone kicking in his door at six in the morning.
26th October 2023

Descent Into Heroin Addiction

Marcus Fair describes having a disease of obsession—an obsession for certain things, be it food, chocolate or computer games—from the time of his youth. ’Whatever I enjoyed, I kicked the arse out of, until it kicked the arse out of me.’ Marcus went through a progression of substances from alcohol, to gas and solvents, cannabis...
25th October 2023

The UK Addiction Recovery Movement: Wulf Livingston

Recovering people were taken on in treatment services as peer supporters or support workers. Now that recovering people had jobs within the treatment system, they couldn’t advocate for radical recovery in the same way they had when they were outside the system.
24th October 2023

Flipped It!! The Movie: Marcus Fair

In his interview with Wulf, Marcus Fair says that the ideas for Eternal Media were generated in 2012, from his prison bunk bed during his last term inside. And Eternal Media really kicked off when Marcus and his colleagues made the film Flipped It!! Here's the story about the making of the film, taken from Marcus's words on Eternal Media's...
23rd October 2023

Our Key Principles: North Wales Recovery Communities

An example of NWRC as a whole giving back to the local community was the feeding of vulnerable people in the community, using food from the community allotment and that provided by supermarkets. The food was gathered, cooked, frozen and delivered by community...
20th October 2023

Spider-Man & Batman: Huseyin Djemil

In my  interview with Huseyin Djemil of Towards Recovery, Huseyin talks about how Andy Partington, in his new book Hope in Addiction, emphasises the distinction in the way that Spider-Man and Batman accomplish their feats. The real deal in recovery is being bitten by the spider and having that internal transformation (like Spider-Man)...
19th October 2023

What is a Recovery Carrier?: Bill White

The source and exact nature of this magnetic energy [of Recovery Carriers] is unclear; it is not something one can acquire in school or a professional training program. It is not so much what one knows or does—knowledge or actions that could be imparted by education or training—as much as who one is and how one relates to others. In listening to people describing how they “caught recovery,” there are consistent themes in how recovery carriers...
18th October 2023

Development of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC)

A very important part of James’s initial vision concerned the permeability of Penryhn House—activities would seep in and out of the place. This permeability increased over time and NWRC moved from being a singular community to an initiative with multiple communities.
17th October 2023

What Helps A Recovery Journey?: Wendy Dossett

Wendy describes herself as having a general positive attitude to life and enjoying the natural world. Her relationships with people have helped her recovery journey. Thinking about how to help other people and contributing to knowledge about addiction and recovery...
16th October 2023

A Life Remembered

Like a stained glass window, with its different elements that make the total picture, John was known to all of us through many different contexts. Yet, he had a life richer and fuller than the parts we each knew. He was known to us, this diverse and disparate community, by a variety of names; JC, John Dogs, John Quack, John Vietnam and...
13th October 2023

Building a Recovery Community, Part 3: Wulf Livingston

James Deakin started to set up challenges for NWRC members, such as a 100-mile in a week challenge, in order to make recovery visible in recovery month, and to challenge the stigmatisation of people who are addicted, or have been addicted, to drugs and alcohol.
13th October 2023

There’s a Place for Me: James Deakin

James points out that he used to be incredibly intimidated by academics at one point. He felt out of place mixing with academics at recovery-related events, but later realised that he had something to contribute. He heard academics talking about recovery-related matters in a theoretical way, but he could see how to apply these...
12th October 2023

Building a Recovery Community, Part 2: Wulf Livingston

Wulf points out that critical to the success of NWRC is that members have access to plenty of free environmental space on their doorstep. No-one has charged them for taking a walk on a beach or going up a mountain. It is more difficult to create a similar entity in a large city...