‘A Life Rebuilt’ from Dawn Farm

October 13, 2014 by

Spotted this on DJMac’s Recovery Review. As DJ says: ‘Here’s a beautifully shot, authentic short film which captures how hope powers recovery.’

‘Amy came to Dawn Farm’s Spera Recovery Center feeling “broken and hopeless and like [she] didn’t have a soul”. In detox, she found others who felt the same way, but also found hope and faith.

Slowly, she learned to face her fears with faith that, if she does the next right thing, things will work out. Two years sober, this faith allows her to confront her fears as her biggest supporter faced cancer.

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‘High on Hope’: Peter’s Story

March 7, 2014 by

Please watch this excellent filmed Recovery Story. Thank you so much for this share, Peter.

‘A frank and honest account of a life dominated by addiction and crime that ends on a ‘HIGH’ – Peter’s story is testament to the paradigm shifts that can happen when people have, ‘just had enough’, ask for help and receive a sufficient amount of it.

Peter has turned his previous experiences into a positive as he now creates a positive ripple-effect in his community by helping others.

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Birmingham Recovery Walk

March 5, 2014 by

It was inspiring to see the latest cut of the film of the 5th UK Recovery Walk which took part in Birmingham in September 2013. It was great to see and hear so many recovering people having a great time. Recovery certainly rocks!

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Want to be part of the biggest film festival screening ever?’

February 25, 2014 by

HAZELDEN’S SOCIAL COMMUNITY WILL HOST A FREE ONLINE SCREENING OF THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE AND LIVE Q&A.

On March 1st starting at 12 A.M. Eastern time (U.S.), the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, a founding partner of the Manyfaces1voice call-to-action campaign, will host a free online stream of The Anonymous People via the Hazelden Social Community.

On that day, The Anonymous People will be available for people all over the world to watch for 24-hours only. The film’s director, Greg Williams, and other key subjects from the film, including Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s William Cope Moyers, will be available for a live chat at 5 p.m. EST.

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My Favourite Blogs: Beth Burgess – ‘What is Recovery from Addiction?’

February 15, 2014 by

I love this piece of film from Beth Burgess, a recovery coach with Smyls.
 
There’s a big difference between sobriety and recovery. Beth points out that many people give up trying to stop drinking after a few days because it feels too difficult. They don’t realise that these bad feelings don’t last if you make the journey to recovery.

Beth describes her first experience of sobriety – “It was horrible” – before she relapsed. Now she is in recovery, she doesn’t think about alcohol. She loves her life. How do you get to that stage?

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My Favourite Blogs: Setting up a Recovery Community

January 25, 2014 by

Phillip Valentine, Executive Director for the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR), emphasises that the essential first stages in building a recovery community are to:

  • create a vanguard of recovering people who want to tell their story
  • organise the community, so that there are many different people, with many different types of recovery, all working towards the same aim.

Phil also stresses the importance of providing a way for people to ‘give back’ – giving back is an essential element of recovery for many people – tapping into this energy and ‘helping it flow to where it wants to go.’

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Recovery from mental disorders, lecture by Pat Deegan

January 18, 2014 by

Patricia Deegan PhD is a psychologist and researcher. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teeenager. For years, Patricia has worked with people with mental disorders in various ways, to help them get better and lead rewarding lives.

This film features clips from a lecture by Patricia Deegan on the subject of her own route to recovery. She describes how her diagnosis took on ‘a master status in terms of her identity’. Her humanity seemed to others ‘to be quite secondary.’

‘He had read a generic text book and simply applied it to the case in font of him. Schizophrenics don’t recover, Pat Deegan won’t recover. It was that simple…’

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My Recovery Highlight of 2013

December 31, 2013 by

images“Many of us have carried a message of hope on a one-to-one basis; this new recovery movement calls upon us to carry that message of hope to whole communities and the whole culture. We will shape the future of recovery with a detached silence or with a passionate voice. It is time we stepped forward to shape this history with our stories, our time and our talents.” William White

I have one major Recovery Highlight of 2013. A Recovery ‘event’ – or a huge series of events would be a better to describe it – that has moved, excited and inspired me. Yes, it is the Greg Williams’ film, The Anonymous People.

Now, I know that no one person is ever responsible for making a film. But Greg deserves a great congratulations and thanks for making this happen. My congrats and thanks also go out to all all those other people involved  in the making and distribution of The Anonymous People and ManyFaces1Voice.

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ManyFaces1Voice: William Cope Moyers

November 20, 2013 by

images‘I was invited to give a presentation at the Rotary club in downtown St Paul, where I got up there and started my talk and was telling them all about the statistics of alcoholism. I saw people like just dropping off, you know, checking their watches and people sneaking out the back door and I was losing them.

So I just decided if I was going to hold this audience and take advantage of this unique opportunity to speak at a Rotary club, I better grab them. So I literally threw the speech to the side of the podium there and said, “I am an alcoholic and an addict and I’m talking today about people like me.”

And I told them my Story, not my 12-step Story but my Story of addiction, my Story of recovery and the multiple treatments I’d had. And I had them! That was the day that I realised that the real power is in the Personal Story.’

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The Anonymous People: New Trailer Announcement

October 27, 2013 by

Filmmaker Greg Williams and The Anonymous People team put this message up on Facebook.

“After many comments and concerns about a few of the original sound bites chosen for film trailer that relate specifically to 12-step groups being misinterpreted and not reflective of the feature length film’s message – we have chosen to revise the film’s trailer.

The Anonymous People project team has deep respect and admiration for the long-standing, beautiful tradition of anonymity at the level of film. No footage in this film has been taken inside meetings held by 12-step fellowships. In addition, no living person is identified or identifies himself or herself as a member of a particular 12-step program and nobody on the project teams feels this needs to change.

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RIOT – Recovery Is Out There

August 23, 2013 by

David McCollom has been making some good films about recovery and recovery-related organisations. Here is  one about RIOT, which you can find in our Film Section.

Three people talk about their recovery and introduce RIOT, an award-winning group of recoverees who attended the BAC O’Connor centre. Recovery Is Out There, right!

And you might want to check out RIOT Radio and the short news clip of its opening.

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Support for You – One Woman’s Story

August 12, 2013 by

Louise C. runs a successful family business in Scotland that employs 90 people.

But she very nearly lost all of this, and her life, due to chronic alcoholism. Louise thanks her family for getting her into treatment. She remembers the day her family dropped her off at Castle Craig: “It took three men to drop me at the door of Castle Craig.”

She admits that “the best thing to do with alcoholics is to gang up on them and give them no option but to try treatment and face up to their addiction.” Once that is done, “you’re half-way there.”

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‘Natural Highs’ by Anthony Nevens

July 1, 2013 by

IMG_9117Where do I start? At the beginning, middle or end, who knows? It all ties in with itself in some twisted tangled ball, but I will try and unravel some of it!

I am just like most other Brits who feel uncomfortable talking about themselves! However, here is a quick summery of the Natural Highs project and how it has tied in with my own recovery.

 Natural Highs was born out of the frustrations of government and professionals stating that to recover from substance use problems we must end up in education or employment. This expectation for me personally, someone who has suffered a massive brain haemorrhage and lost the use of my legs, and experienced memory problems, was clearly unrealistic, to say the least.

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Beth Burgess: ‘What is Recovery from Addiction?’

June 10, 2013 by

I love this piece of film from Beth Burgess, a recovery coach with Smyls.  

There’s a big difference between sobriety and recovery. Beth points out that many people give up trying to stop drinking after a few days because it feels too difficult. They don’t realise that these bad feelings don’t last if you make the journey to recovery.

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‘About AA and Step 9’ from Don in London

June 7, 2013 by

Michael Scott sent me this link a few hours ago and I was really impressed by what Don in London had to say and how he said it. I then realised that there was a YouTube channel full of Don’s videos.

I got a good feeling about Don and he left me in a reflective state of mind. Thanks, Don.

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The Personal Story of Kevan Manley

June 6, 2013 by

This is a short version of a 35 minute film focusing on Kevin’s recovery from drug addiction that we made a number of years ago. His mother Kerry talks about her experiences during Kevin’s 15 year history of problem drug use and his recovery.

The film was made for Wired In by Jonathan Kerr-Smith and Lucie James in and around Cardiff, South Wales.

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Setting up a Recovery Community

June 3, 2013 by

Phillip Valentine, Executive Director for the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR), emphasises that the essential first stages in building a recovery community are to:

  1. create a vanguard of recovering people who want to tell their story
  2. organise the community, so that there are many different people, with many different types of recovery, all working towards the same aim.

Read More ➔

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People affected by a loved one’s addiction

May 31, 2013 by

Not enough attention has been focused on the difficulties experienced by loved ones and friends of people with a substance use problem. That’s wrong.

I’ve probably made the same mistake during my blogs this week. So here’s a film from David McCollom, a young man in recovery who is doing some great film work on recovery in the UK.

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Recovery from mental disorders, lecture by Pat Deegan

May 30, 2013 by

Patricia Deegan PhD is a psychologist and researcher. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teeenager. For years, Patricia has worked with people with mental disorders in various ways, to help them get better and lead rewarding lives.

This film features clips from a lecture by Patricia Deegan on the subject of her own route to recovery. She describes how her diagnosis took on ‘a master status in terms of her identity’. Her humanity seemed to others ‘to be quite secondary.’

Read More ➔

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The Healing Power of Recovery

May 29, 2013 by

A beautiful film made by Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR). What more can I say?

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