Marc Laithwaite and his incredible team of staff and volunteers have supported our founder Rich …
The loss of a friend, Phil, who died alone in a temporary bed sit at …
I love interacting with people in recovery from addiction, and many have become my close …
At a time when our society is becoming more and more disconnected, we need to …
“Human beings are storytelling creatures, that’s how we best learn, that’s how we best communicate. So when the storytellers in our society tell their stories, they end up having a powerful impact.”
Dr Bruce D. Perry
I gradually leant to deal with the shame and guilt I had experienced for many years. The sharing of our stories played an important role in this regard. Gaining a sense of belonging played a major role in the early stages of my recovery journey. A real game changer for me was the NA programme and the Step-work I’ve done.
Stories help us to develop empathy. They allow us to understand another person’s world from their perspective. Stories give us unique access to the inner lives and motivations of others. They contain so much more information than we can convey in the statement of facts.
I believe that connection and belonging are key to recovery. I enjoy co-facilitating the Bangor Recovery Project with John Stoner, and co-facilitating, with Saff, a weekly SMART Recovery meeting in Colwyn Bay. I engage in a variety of other recovery-related activities, as well as a range of physical activities, including gym work, swimming and riding around on my mountain bike.
You have to realise my state of thinking prior to that first group meeting in the treatment agency. Once I had become addicted to heroin, I did not see that there was any alternative to the life I was living. I didn’t know anyone who had overcome heroin addiction. I had never heard…
I grew up around alcohol. Drinking was a daily thing for my parents and wider family, who ran bars, pubs, and clubs. I saw the fun, and I saw the damage it caused. Some of my relatives drank themselves to the bitter end, but at such a young age this was overlooked, as these people were my heroes.
You might also like to watch the video below, in which Elissa talks about overcoming addiction, her journey into treatment and the complications she encountered following residential recovery.
She speaks frankly about the turning point in her life, her experience of family and relationship breakdowns, and her hopes for a brighter future as an advocate with Atebion.
