The final day of #RAAW16 in the US sees a final and appropriate hashtag, #SecondChances . At some point in Recovery most of us can reflect on the second chances we are given and sharing those stories can often inspire others embarking on their own Recovery journey. I have been Continue Reading
The Power of Story
“By sharing our stories, it seems, we invite each other into our worlds. This enhances our interconnectedness, shared awareness, and possibilities for fruitful interaction.” Stories have power. The telling of the personal story has long been a cornerstone of connectedness, one of humanities most basic needs is connection to others. Continue Reading
What Does Recovery Look Like?
In the spirit of FAVOR’s #RAAW16 (that is Recovery Advocacy Awareness Week), we are giving their theme for Monday 2nd May a moment of consideration. #ThisIsWhatRecoveryLooksLike is the nominated hash tag. A cursory search on Google throws out hundreds of individual stories of what Recovery means to people through their Continue Reading
Recovery Advocacy Week – Opening Up Recovery
Those of us who have found a path in Recovery, or are just setting out on the journey often face a dilemma when it comes to disclosure about our problem. Sadly this often means we also remain silent about our solution. Openly sharing with others our “status” can be a Continue Reading
Take It Online!
“The evidence around the recovery process is that people need three things to succeed: social connection, motivation, and confidence. Digital resources can help with all three,” Gardner said. “If you have a digital life, you should think about weaving recovery in, just like you want to weave recovery into all Continue Reading
Mindfulness and Recovery
From respected academics to revered specialist practitioners, Mindfulness (as a regular practice) is widely accepted as a practical and realistic stress reduction technique. In many countries medical schemes are willing to cover Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs accepting the growing body of evidence supporting it’s efficacy. Still in early Continue Reading
Philosophy of Recovery?
Many people in Recovery from addiction, whether it be to alcohol, drugs or the so called process addictions, use the 12 Step Fellowships to develop their Recovery. If the numbers we hear (22m Americans living in Recovery) are right, both in the USA and elsewhere, then clearly there are many Continue Reading
Choose Life – Choose Recovery
There are certainly no shortage of depictions of addiction and alcoholism in popular culture, some of it original, much of it clichéd but they sure are there. That might make a good book, if someone hasn’t already written it, let us know if you have. This though is a blog Continue Reading
A Healthy Approach to Recovery
Our last post, Do You Want To Be Happy, Or Right? looked at the ‘We are right and you are wrong’ dualistic thinking that surrounds both addiction, treatment and recovery so we are happy to introduce you to a great article, and approach from Matthew Lovitt’s blog. A Master Nutrition Continue Reading
Do You Want To Be Happy Or Right?
I made sense of my addiction to alcohol and drug use (not specific drugs) through the so called ‘Disease Model‘ which explains the problem as an illness, most directly comparable to other relapse prone conditions such as diabetes, asthma and hyper-tension. Although the Disease Model is widely used throughout the addiction Continue Reading