Our Themes section includes films of our interviewees that are focusing on specific topics related to recovery, addiction, treatment, and sometimes other matters.
The films have been created by re-editing our original film into short (almost always less than three minutes) clips, and then 'linking' the appropriate clips by using YouTube Playlists. The Theme films are compiled from material involving one or more of our interviewees.
2nd November 2023
Wendy Dossett and Wulf discuss the problems of trying to be an addiction recovery advocate whilst working within the system, where financial interests and status are major factors. Wulf believes that the recovery advocacy movement has receded into small communities and off the national stage.
26th October 2023
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...
13th October 2023
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.
12th October 2023
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...
11th October 2023
The first of a three-part Themes series focused on building a recovery community, with my colleague Wulf Livingston using developments over time at North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) as an example. In 2015, Wulf was asked by James Deakin, the Founder of NWRC...
9th October 2023
James Deakin emphasises that people with addiction problems cause a large cost to society, so it’s important that when they’re getting well they give something back. As he started to help others, he realised that there was so much value to giving back, and to be recognised as a positive, upstanding member of the community.
5th October 2023
Marcus Fair, Founder of of Eternal Media, emphasises that he was a very busy addict. When someone like him gets into recovery, they are thinking, ‘How I am going to fill those 24 hours? If you can’t remember what you used to do, or you were a kid when you got onto drugs, and you have no outside interests… now what?’
22nd September 2023
Huseyin Djemil describes working in a rehab where staff used to put a cover story together for residents so that when they left they didn’t have to reveal their past. He found that difficult and later said to residents, when he became temporary CEO of the rehab, ‘Do you really want to start your new your new life with a cover story...
21st September 2023
Shame often plays an important role when a person is developing and/or has developed a drinking problem. In the first clip here, David McCartney describes how shame was part of a major epiphany in his life. He was asked by a woman if he would see her brother and talk about his drinking problem. On the way home after seeing her...
20th September 2023
Wendy Dossett points out that at mutual aid group meetings, no-one is better than anyone else. 'Everyone has done the same shit.' At the end of the clip, she says, ‘But for navigating a path to recovery from addiction, the central kind of emotional journey that that is, you’re so much better off with somebody who’s trod that path...
19th September 2023
Wulf Livingston has always paraphrased the role of treatment in the recovery journey as: 'if you listen to the experts [people who have found recovery], the staying off is harder than the getting off.' However, he points out that 90% of money is spent on helping people get off, while 10% is spent on helping people stay off.
18th September 2023
Wendy Dossett has been researching the 12-Step Fellowship for a number of years. She points out that those groups that use the 12-step approach start with the concept of powerlessness, and argue that if the experience of the substance use or the behaviour is beyond a person’s willpower, then there has to be some...
17th September 2023
Marcus sums up his addiction to drugs by saying that every single moment was about getting money to get drugs... and find somewhere to do it. And then having heroin help him escape from the reality of his lifestyle. When you've been living like that for years and you try to stop using... now what?!
16th September 2023
James Deakin emphasises that members of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC) have to not only attend mutual aid groups, but also engage in a minimum of 20-30 hours community social activities a week. 'It's forming those sober connections, it's being around other people that are clean and sober... it's about connection.'
15th September 2023
Our interviewees talk about various aspects relating to the stigmatisation of people who have had a past drug or alcohol problem. 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...