Peapod was the top blogger on Wired In To Recovery before retiring. Here is a snappy piece on peer-based support, originally published in March 2011.
‘What do people in recovery remember as the key things that helped us initiate and then maintain the recovery journey? Do we remember the doctor getting our medication dose just right? Do we remember a brilliant care plan? Do we remember diaries and charts and exercises? Probably not.
What I remember are the people on my path. The person who answered the phone in my hour of need and who listened; the kindness and wisdom of the staff in the treatment centre; the warmth and practical help shown me when I had very little to draw on and didn’t know where to turn. Sometimes people supporting me cared enough to be honest and told me things I didn’t particularly want to hear.
In the following years, I was able to give some of this support back to others in similar dark places. Some of the people I was there for have done the same thing to others and so it goes on: the compassionate face of recovery and the powerful therapeutic effect of one addict helping another.
This approach is formalised in sponsorship in the Anonymous Fellowships and more and more, these days, through peer mentorship and recovery coaching. The time of peer-based support has come.’
Photo is one of a selection of colarised photos from the Huffington Post: ‘Car crash in Washington DC in 1921’
