Blog

The sociality of recovery provides meaning and identity. For many people, addiction attenuates their life meaning. Recovery restores meaning. Most people get meaning from relationships, from being able to give and receive, to have fun with other people, and share experiences with...

It's four months to the day that I visited ARC Fitness Recovery Community in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. I still think fondly of that amazing visit. In fact, I miss this vibrant city and the wonderful people I met at ARC. It's amazing how I've been so affected by my visit.

Sharing healing stories is important for many reasons, including helping those who are suffering. I know without a doubt that my journey out of the depths of despair would not have been possible without the people that shared with me their personal narratives. It was through these inspiring stories of resilience, strength...

Huseyin describes a project he had previously commissioned that involved giving homeless people in Aylesbury cameras to record their experiences on the street. The project participants were given the option of being anonymous when the project report was prepared. They didn’t want to be anonymous; they wanted their...

‘… my identity started to shift from being somebody struggling with addiction, to being somebody who focused on their health and who loved to run. And I was surrounded by people who saw me through this different lens, and that was refreshing for me because I had always been under the impression throughout my recovery...'

The brain-disease model overlooks four fundamental truths: (1) our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another. Restoring relationships and community is central to restoring well-being; language gives us the power to change ourselves...

Rhoda goes on to say: 'There are general universal things that we need to do to respond well to people. And the most unhelpful thing to do is to create stereotypes, to label people, to block people from the help at the moment they are inviting it in. Give people...'

David started to drink more and more to alleviate his increasing anxiety. He eventually realised that his drinking levels were not that different to the people who were coming to see him for their alcohol problems. However, he rationalised that he could not have a...

One of the themes behind developing Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor), the NWRC cafe/restaurant on the High Street, ‘was to try and be of service to other marginalised communities within the wider community.’ NWRC grows food, through their Growing for Change initiative, which it supplies to a number of local...

This was probably the first time that I realised that my addiction wasn’t about a particular substance, but was about my way of thinking or perception of reality. The substance was in fact my solution to my inability to live at peace with myself. Coming to accept that I, rather than...

The first essential factor for a person to be able to recover is hope. This hope is based on a sense that life can hold more for one than it currently does, and it inspires a desire and motivation to improve one’s lot in life and pursue recovery. Hope is the catalyst of the...

Photographs become so much more than pictures once you’ve been on Recovery in Focus! Our location shoots took us to Liverpool, Colwyn Bay, Parys Mountain, Llandudno and Lligwy. And the workshops taught photography skills, support in building robust recovery toolkits, alongside learning how to use photography...

... Wulf told me about his chef days. My clearest memory about those conversations was Wulf telling me how much drinking and drugging went on amongst chefs. It was an occupation to escape or avoid! He also told me about his actions described in the film below, his helping young people. Seeds of what was to come in his later life...

Please tell your friends about our website and ask them to do the same. It’s very important that as many people as possible get to hear about the amazing recovery communities that exist in the UK (and further afield).... And please remember, the voices of recovering people are inspirational and have much to teach us. 

I've therefore decided to take a period away from our Recovery Voices project, so that I can focus more on the recovery book I want to write and spend more time 'being'. This post will be my last until the beginning of August. This focus on book writing and 'being' time is all the more important in that I have a significant...