First of all, I would like to wish all readers All the Very Best for 2024. I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Christmas. To help bring in the New Year, I thought I would let you know the ten most viewed posts on Recovery Stories this year.
10. Michael’s Recovery Story: ‘The Power of Empathy and Compassion’ Michael followed both his parents into a life of dependent drinking, but he was 45 years sober on 10 April 2023. He describes his recovery journey, his work as a drug and alcohol counsellor, and his part-time role in ‘retirement’.
9. Anna’s Recovery Story: ‘Should I or Shouldn’t I?’ Through his heroin addiction and recovery, Anna’s brother has taught her so much about life, including the most valuable lesson she could ever learn—you can get through anything.
8. Brad’s Recovery Story: ‘A Life Beyond My Wildest Dreams’ Following a life of crime, fighting and drinking, Brad started his recovery journey after being told that alcohol wasn’t his problem—it was him! He later had an experience that he could only describe as a spiritual awakening.
7. ‘My Recovery: A seminar opening speech’ by Adam A 5-minute speech that Adam gave to open the Fresh Start Recovery Seminar in Perth, Western Australia, in July 2011. He also blogged this on the Wired In To Recovery online community.
6. Simon’s Recovery Story: ‘Gratitude for the Life I Thought Was Over…’ Simon’s first Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting was pivotal, not just in helping him turn his life around, but also in setting him up to make future significant contributions to NA both in the UK and abroad.
5. Understanding Indigenous Healing Indigenous people have a holistic view of health and wellbeing that incorporates the physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, social and environmental. It does not just focus on the individual, but also on the health and wellbeing of the community.
4. The New ‘William White Papers’ Website Includes nearly all of Bill’s writings over the past half century, including all his major papers and monographs on recovery advocacy, recovery management, and recovery-oriented systems of care; more than 100 interviews with addiction treatment and recovery advocacy leaders, and classic documents on the history of addiction treatment and recovery in the United States and in other countries.
3. ‘The Four Stages of Recovery’, from Mark Ragins Recovery from mental health problems has four stages: (1) hope, (2) empowerment, (3) self-responsibility and (4) a meaningful role in life.
2. 12 Principles of Indigenous Healing I summarise what I considered to be 12 principles of healing, which are relevant to Aboriginal people here in Australia and other Indigenous peoples around the world.
1. Judith Herman: Trauma and Recovery The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the empowerment of the survivor and the creation of new connections.
The two most viewed articles of the past year were in the same position last year. I hope you check out these popular posts and enjoy them.
I would like to finish this post by remembering two close friends who passed away this year, Noreen Oliver MBE and Brad Miah-Phillips. They were Recovery Champions who inspired me greatly. You can read more about the work I did with Noreen and our friendship here. And you can read Brad’s Recovery Story that I wrote with him here.
