Wendy describes herself as having a general positive attitude to life and enjoying the natural world. Her relationships with people have helped her recovery journey. Thinking about how to help other people and contributing to knowledge about addiction and recovery through her training also play a significant role. Psychotherapy has helped her at different times in her life, by allowing her to delve deeper into her past trauma, and intergenerational trauma, which she believes underlie her past addictive behaviours.
Bill White’s Writings
March 16, 2023 by
Researcher, historian, practitioner and recovery advocate William (Bill) L White has been the most prolific writer in the addiction recovery field. You only have to look at his website. The impact of his ideas, work and writings has been enormous. Here, I include links to a number of my blog posts that focus on Bill White’s writings.
Bruce Perry’s Trauma Work
March 16, 2023 by
I have learnt a great deal from Dr. Bruce Perry about trauma and the healing of trauma over the past years. I have posted a number of articles about Bruce’s work on my Healing blog on The Carrolup Story website that I run with John Stanton. I thought it was time that I linked to these articles on this website due to the impact of childhood trauma and neglect on the development of addiction.
Trauma and Healing
March 16, 2023 by
Links to 12 blog posts from The Carrolup Story website that I developed with John Stanton. These blog posts consider work by world-leading experts, including Gabor Maté, Vincent Felitti, Judith Herman, Bessel van Der Kolk, James Gordon and Judy Atkinson. Bruce Perry’s work is considered in another Resource.
Addiction and Psychological Pain: Some Reflections
February 23, 2023 by
During the many years I spent working in the addiction and mental health field, first as a neuroscientist and later (2000-2008) in the UK helping empower people to facilitate their recovery (healing), I rarely heard the word ‘trauma’ being used.
Few practitioners I met mentioned that the person with the substance use problem might be self-medicating to ameliorate psychological pain. And yet in society, there were plenty of people visiting their doctor and obtaining a prescription of benzodiazepines such as librium, which are highly addictive substances, or antidepressants, which also produce problems, to help them deal with unpleasant psychological states of anxiety or depression.
When I sat down and talked to people who were on their journey to recovery from substance use problems, they would sometimes mention problems in their life that pre-dated their excessive use of substances and often were the reason they started to use the substance in question. This was particularly the case with former heroin users.
‘What Happened? What Mental Health is Really About’: Bill Saunders
February 22, 2023 by
Here is the Forward of a book written by Perth Clinical Psychologist Bill Saunders, What Happened? What Mental Health is Really About. This is a really important book, essential reading for anyone interested in mental health or psychological wellbeing. I agree with all of Bill’s statements below about mental health.
‘On most mornings when writing this book I’d get up at first light and go for a ‘clear the head run.’ Running is a great way to think; especially about writing. I’d begin the run ‘thinking’ about how to address an issue and then somewhere in the run I would start ‘having thoughts’ that brought clarity.
One day, wending my way back to the beachside house that I was using as a writer’s retreat, I saw the following statement written on a blackboard that normally advertised the local golf club’s menu specials.
“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.”
I guiltily knew that the message applied to me. I knew that for many years, I had kept quiet about troubling things. I knew that I had, for a couple of decades at least, had a growing disquiet about how we manage mental health. But, I had remained silent. I went back that morning and I wrote with increased vigour. I toughened the book up.
Three Things to Know About Mental Health and Trauma
February 9, 2023 by
I just love this film clip from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health that involves Dr. Bruce Perry talking about mental health and trauma. Here are the three major things that Bruce points out:
- Trauma sharing is a way for storytellers, not experts, to lead the conversation. Storytellers change the narrative.
- Sharing about trauma seems trendy, but it speaks to a deeper truth.
- Those with a platform should use it.
‘Human beings are human beings. We don’t change our minds because a bunch of scientists publish a set of recommendations and issue them. Honestly, this is no offence to the Heart Foundation or any other Foundation but you’ve all been publishing white papers about topics for years. Those don’t change public opinion. What changes people are the storytellers in our society.
The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power: Gabor Maté at TEDxRio+20
February 3, 2023 by
Canadian physician Gabor Maté’s theme at TEDxRio+20 was addiction – from drugs to power. From the lack of love to the desire to escape oneself, from susceptibility of the being to interior power – nothing escapes. And he risks a generic and generous prescription: “Find your nature and be nice to yourself.” TEDx Talks. [18’46”]
Ruby’s Healing Story
February 3, 2023 by
Marion Kickett, Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University in Perth, shares the harrowing story of Ruby and describes how her early experiences impacted on her life. By forgiving people involved in these terrible events, Ruby started a healing process which led to her realising a dream. Sharing Culture. 4 October 2013. [9’42”]
Oprah Winfrey & Dr. Bruce Perry in Conversation | SXSW EDU 2021
February 2, 2023 by
Oprah Winfrey and leading child psychiatrist and neuroscientist Bruce Perry, MD, PhD explore the impact of childhood trauma on who we become, the decisions we make, and how healing must start with one question ‘what happened to you?’ in anticipation of a new co-authored book of the same name. Winfrey and Dr. Perry focus on understanding how shifting the approach to trauma and allowing understanding of the past allows for an opening of the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.
Fulfilling Trauma’s Hidden Promise: James Gordon
February 2, 2023 by
Psychiatrist, author, advisor to the White House, and professor at Georgetown Medical School, James Gordon is a world-renowned expert in using mind-body medicine to heal depression, anxiety, and psychological trauma. James shares how he has witnessed the healing power of mind-body medicine for traumatised children and families in areas such as Bosnia, Gaza, and Israel. TEDMED. [23’21”]
Good relationships are the key to healing trauma | Karen Treisman | TEDxWarwickSalon
February 2, 2023 by
Dr Treisman talks about the importance of forging good relationships and effective society-wide systems when it comes to understanding and healing trauma. Dr Karen Treisman, a Clinical Psychologist, has worked across the globe with groups ranging from adopted children to former child soldiers to survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. TEDx Talks. [17’21”]
Learn the Signs and Symptoms of PTSD, with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
February 2, 2023 by
Bessel starts this seven-minute film clip by describing how the diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was created to remind the Department of Veterans Administration in the USA to take care of war veterans. It was quite clear that a large of number of Vietnam veterans were traumatised by their war-time experiences. Big Think. [7’15”]
Psychiatry Must Stop Ignoring Trauma, with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
February 2, 2023 by
Acclaimed psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk explores his field’s long, complex, and stubborn history with trauma. Dr. van der Kolk explains how psychiatry as a whole avoided progress, often misdiagnosing trauma as hysteria or, in the case of shell-shocked soldiers, malingering. The experiences of abused women and children were more or less ignored for a century. They’re still being ignored in ways, he says. Psychiatry is still too focused on abstract diagnoses and not cognisant enough of the traumatic experiences that lead to them. Big Think. [4’03”]
Natalie’s Trauma Story: My Childhood Experiences
January 3, 2023 by
In my last blog post, I described my 2022 reunion with Natalie, a recovering heroin addict who first inspired me to start writing recovery stories back in the early 2000s. You can read the version of Natalie’s Recovery Story, I Didn’t Plan To Be An Addict, I initially wrote for this website back in 2013 here.
Natalie is now an inspiring senior practitioner in a treatment service and is over 20 years in recovery. In my last blog post, I said that I would describe Natalie’s childhood experiences that led to her becoming traumatised. This section is taken from my eBook Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction, which contains the latest version of Natalie’s Story.
‘I lived in a rural area with my Mum and Dad and brother and sister. I remember that my Dad would disappear to London for a week or two from time to time. When I was 11 years old, we moved to a city, although my Dad wasn’t there for the actual move. Within five days of the move, he was arrested for drug smuggling.
Visiting UK Recovery Friends: Part 8 (Natalie)
January 2, 2023 by
It was wonderful for me to catch up with ‘Natalie’ whilst I was in Wales in September 2022. She was the first treatment service user I spent in-depth time with, and from whom I learnt a good deal about the nature of heroin addiction and recovery. She told me that when she was using heroin, she did not know how to stop. She could find no information about how to stop using. She knew no one who had stopped using. The solution to these problems was to keep using, letting heroin kill her pain, shame and the hatred of herself for what she had become.
Through listening to Natalie, I first started to realise the importance of key factors facilitating recovery: gaining hope, understanding, and a sense of belonging. As Wired In, we emphasised the key importance of Empowerment and Connection for facilitating recovery. We pointed out that hope, understanding (of the nature of the problem and the solution), and belonging were key factors underlying Empowerment.
Relationships, Connection and Healing from Trauma: Bruce Perry & Maia Szalavitz
December 25, 2022 by
For anyone interested in the healing of childhood trauma, I strongly recommend you read, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And other Stories From a Child Psychiatrists Notebook by Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz. Here is a description of the book from the back cover:
‘What happens when a child is traumatized? How does terror affect a child’s mind—and how can that mind recover? Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry has treated children faced with unimaginable horror: genocide survivors, witnesses to their own parents’ murders, children raised in closets and cages, the Branch Davidian children, and victims of family violence.
In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, he tells their stories of trauma and transformation. Dr. Perry clearly explains what happens to the brain when children are exposed to extreme stress. He reveals his innovative methods for helping ease their pain, allowing them to become healthy adults. This deeply informed and moving book dramatically demonstrates that only when we understand the science of the mind can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.’
Learn the Signs and Symptoms of PTSD: Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
December 25, 2022 by
Bessel van der Kolk is one of the world’s leading experts on trauma and the healing of trauma. His book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, is a classic in the field, one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read.
Bessel starts this seven-minute film clip by describing how the diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was created to remind the Department of Veterans Administration in the USA to take care of war veterans. It was quite clear that a large of number of Vietnam veterans were traumatised by their war-time experiences.
