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‘"It was 25 years, just looking like a skull on a stick." Eating every three days, if he remembered, and if he could get into the local garage to rob something. He’d travel around the country buying heroin. He used to wear out towns, rather quickly, because of the amount of crime in which he was involved. He had to keep moving on.

Stories give cognitive and emotional significance to experience. 'Stories are amusing, memorable, and absorbing; they are also instructive, informative and orienting… We construct and negotiate our social identity through the stories we tell other people (and through the stories that then get repeated about us).'

'Fear doesn't consume me anymore. Instead of being emotionally shut down, crippled by feelings of worthlessness and despair, I am thriving, developing and growing. I have learned how to love and be loved, how to help and be helped. I'm just a guy who found recovery and was shown the way out of addiction. For me it will always be a lifelong programme of maintenance.'

Once I started meeting and listening to people with, or who were recovering from, a serious substance use problem, I knew immediately I was doing something important. I was learning key information that not only would shape my own behaviours, but other people’s as well. I knew I had to start writing Recovery Stories...

Members of recovery communities engage in a wide range of social, physical and educational activities that fill the void created by moving away from previous unhealthy addictive behaviours, and help individuals create a more fulfilling and rewarding lifestyle. Recovery communities facilitate human connection and enable feelings of...

Big Organisations Hoovering Up Money: ‘You change the articles and conditions, or the memorandum or your legal status of the organisation, to allow you to trade in a bigger circle. And that’s all about feeding a corporate identity. It’s actually got absolutely nothing to do with the individuals underneath.’

'I’m old enough now to start considering my legacy. This is one way for me to share lessons learned in my recovery, in my role as Executive Director and a trainer. When I engage with others, I present the same messages repeatedly. It’s time to write them down.' Phil Valentine, Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR)

'What strikes me throughout is the strong sense of social justice (and injustice) that shapes Marcus’s experience as he explores the translation of his personal filmmaking into establishing one of the most fantastic of community projects. Marcus has become a key leader within and supporter of much of which stands out about the...'

'The worst scenario would be that we would move into the lives of communities and - rather than help nurture the growth of indigenous supports - replace these natural, reciprocal relationships with ones that are professionalized, hierarchal, and commercialised.’

‘Treatment services, instead of trying to be all things to all people, [should] just concentrate on the shit [they] can do, which is acting as a set of stabilisers. Getting people clean, getting them sober, offering them counselling, giving them detox, and then once they’re clean...once they’re sober and once they’re detoxed, give them to…’

For a period of four years from 15th November 2004, I wrote a bi-weekly series of Background Briefings for Drink and Drugs News (DDN), the leading UK magazine focused on drug and alcohol treatment. Here are links to 38 of 72 Briefings; each contains a link to an original pdf. I have great memories interacting with Claire Brown of DDN.

'I was standing in the queue with my whisky bottle in the basket when I became aware of someone standing behind me, and I turned to look and it was the sister of the man who had been in to see me [about his drinking problem] that afternoon.' Dr. David McCartney

'As reflected in our conversation, it becomes rapidly clear that Wendy has so much to offer to, and insight on, the process of recovery. She is honest and thoughtful in reflections on her own recovery journey. Rich and insightful in her understanding of the 12-Step Fellowship and particularly the role that spirituality plays in recovery.'

I first met Huseyin Djemil, Founder of Towards Recovery, in 2006/7 at a recovery group meeting run by Kathy Gyngell at the Centre for Policy Studies. I was very impressed by him and what he had to say. At the time, Huseyin was London Area Drug Strategy Coordinator for HM Prison Services. I had no idea at first that he was...

Recognition of, and respect for, the Human Rights of Indigenous peoples is fundamental to improving their health and wellbeing. Society must ensure that Indigenous peoples have full and effective participation in decisions that directly or indirectly affect their lives.