Blog

‘A fundamental and permeating strength of humankind is the capacity to form and maintain relationships—the capacity to belong. It is in the context of our clan, community and culture that we are born and raised. The brain-mediated set of complex capacities that allow one human to connect to another form the very basis for...'

David describes that as his drinking problem was becoming worse he developed the ability to split what he was drinking from what his patients with alcohol problems were drinking. The amounts were not that different. However, David rationalised that he couldn't have a problem, as he was in a suit and seeing patients.

It was about the heart-sinking feeling, the overwhelming despair that occurred when he was coming around in the morning, even before opening his eyes. ‘Oh shit, I’ve got to do everything that I did yesterday again today, and that’s the horrible thing about addiction.'

Marcus Fair describes the Chief Constable of North Wales, Simon Shaw, as a champion of the recovery cause. He believed that people could change with the right help. Simon was a humanitarian, but he also knew that a lot of police money could be saved by helping people who had an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol, and were...

Tim Leighton first introduced me to the writings of William (Bill) L. White. In this film clip, Tim describes his discovery of Bill White as an ‘Aladdin’s Cave moment’. He started reading his writings in the early 2000s, and views him as writing so sensitively and wisely ‘about virtually everything’ relating to recovery, treatment and addiction.

It was an opportunity to tell the story of the Higher Power Project, my large qualitative research project that explored the ways Twelve-Step Fellowship members engage with and negotiate the notion of Higher Power in their recovery from addiction. The talk was also...

Focus was then ‘on them, as a family—how they function, their values, their strengths, where the priority risks are for them, how they are going to overcome them themselves with us alongside.’ The family then began to put their alternative behaviours in place, which they...

When James first started, members of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) used to refer to themselves as a family. That statement used to give him ‘the horrors’, as he started to think of the  ‘boundaries’ issue.... ’ Wulf told James he needed to embrace the idea, of the family, because the more members felt part of a...

The programme, conducted over a 12-week period, involves teaching people in a collaborative group environment necessary skills to support long-term recovery. For example, participants learn acceptance-based strategies and mindfulness practices that reduce...

After seeing an advert in the British Medical Journal, David phoned the Sick Doctors Trust Helpline. He talked to a doctor in recovery who told his personal story. ‘His story connected with me in a way the tablets hadn’t.’ David had found hope. He also heard for the first time...

I was deeply saddened to hear from Cormac Russell of the recent passing of John McKnight, co-Founder of The ABCD Institute (DePaul University, Chicago, USA) and quite possibly the most recognised community developer in the world. The work of John and his colleagues on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) has been...

Wulf talks about being involved with North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) in taking eight members on a trek that involved climbing the 15 peaks in Snowdonia that are over 3,000 feet—27 hours of non-stop walking including two nights on the mountain! He points out that groups like NWRC take more risks...

These arguments are strongly supported by seminal research by Michael Chandler and Christopher Lalonde with over 200 Indigenous communities in British Columbia, Canada. They observed that whilst some Indigenous communities had suicide rates nearly 800 times the national average, others had no suicides at all.

There is a strong Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) component, to help people understand their thoughts, behaviours, cravings, and the role of environmental cues. They have a good deal of education around mental health, as addiction and mental health go very much...

When Wendy reached what she considered was her rock bottom, a time of absolute agony, she reached out for help. She didn’t go to treatment, and attributes her recovery to mutual aid. As her sobriety continued, her mental health improved incrementally.