Blog

The idea of a Blog page is that we will regularly be posting a wide variety of different content. The page will not only contain posts related to our Recovery Voices interviews, but also include key information about addiction, recovery and treatment, latest happenings within the recovery communities with which we are collaborating, and relevant news and information from the wider world. We also hope to have contributions from guest bloggers from time-to-time. 

13th March 2024

2021 ‘No Shame’ Campaign: ARC Fitness

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...
12th March 2024

37th Anniversary: John Crace

'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
11th March 2024

Zooming in on Marcus Fair and NWRC Members

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...
8th March 2024

The Culture of Addiction, Part 2: Bill White

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...
7th March 2024

The Culture of Addiction, Part 1: Bill White

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...
6th March 2024

Being Interviewed by Huseyin Djemil

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... 
5th March 2024

Helping Families Create Sustained Change: Rhoda Emlyn-Jones OBE

'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...
4th March 2024

My Journey: From Brain Chemicals to Human Connection

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...
26th February 2024

Huseyin Djemil’s Reflections

... 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.
23rd February 2024

Building a Recovery Community

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...
22nd February 2024

A Wall To Recovery: Stigma

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...
21st February 2024

The Four Walls: Mark Ragins

If we ask people what was most helpful to them they rarely describe our clever diagnosis and elaborate combinations of medications. They describe moments of human kindness and caring, of believing in them and inspiring hope, of listening to them and making them feel precious. Recovery is not a process in which illness is...
20th February 2024

Why We Need Recovery Communities: A Reminder

The visibility of recovery; the active sight of those in recovery being in, and giving back to, the wider community; the demonstration of what is possible; and even the possibility of successful change are all pivotal to individual and collective recovery. The direct challenge...
19th February 2024

It Goes Back To My Childhood: Rhoda Emlyn-Jones

Alun provided so much support for people with alcohol-related issues. There are still three rehabs existing in Wales because of him. He did all this voluntarily. He used to bring home people who had nowhere to live and were drinking on the streets. Rhoda and her sisters used to...
16th February 2024

My Name is Jim and I’m a Recovery Ally: Jim LaPierre

I love working with people in recovery because I like people who are exceptionally genuine, motivated, and who seek to make great changes in their lives.... People in recovery inspire me. I love their candor, their accountability, their integrity, their humor, and...