Foster Care and Addiction

Hi one and all,

We have received the following request from Dragonfly. If you feel you can share your story, and bring some of these important issues out into the open, please do get in touch with David.

“Dear Wired In users,

Dragonfly Film & Television Productions, makers of One Born Every Minute, are in production of a documentary being lad by Fatima Whitbread about her 14 years in foster care as part of a Channel 5 series ‘My Secret Past’.

We are looking for people to take part in the documentary who can share their stories of problems they experienced with addiction after they left care and their support may not have been what they needed.

Fatima spent the first 14 years of her life in foster care and was eventually adopted by her javelin coach; this along with her connection to sport saved her life from an uncertain future. She was to leave care and move to London faced with not knowing what would have happened to her.

Fatima is leading the documentary and is keen to not point fingers at the care system, but we are aware that unfortunately sometimes the support is lost when young people leave care. This can often lead to problems with drugs or alcohol and we feel this is something most people are unaware of.

Having people share their stories about drug or alcohol addiction they have experienced after leaving care when the support they needed feel away will help people realise that more help is needed and more can be done to help those in vulnerable positions.

The production would be looking to film within the next week, but we are more than happy to speak to you confidentially beforehand via email and phone. Any e-mail will not tie you to filming and if you would like anyone to accompany you to filming that’s no problem.

For more information please email:

David
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)”

3 comments - First published on: 15/05/2012

Keith Humphreys on Mutual Aid

Hi one and all,

Thanks to Peter Sheath for passing this on.

A great film with loads of evidence that linking people assertively into mutual aid improves their chances of being drug free and healthy after 12 months. As Keith says, “Experiential knowledge is the basis of expertise.”

Enjoy.

1 comments - First published on: 12/05/2012

Recovery Carriers

A really fascinating article from Bill White on Recovery Carriers. He defines Recovery Carriers as “people, usually in recovery, who make recovery infectious to those around them by their openness about their recovery experiences, their quality of life and character, and the compassion they exhibit for those still suffering.”

I can think of a fair few people who fit that definition, in fact I think Wired In exists because we are a community of Recovery Carriers.

He goes on to say that “The recovery carrier is in many ways the opposing face of the addiction carrier—the person who defends his or her own drug use by spreading it (and excessive patterns of use) to all those he or she encounters. The pathology of addiction is often spread from one infected person to another; some individuals can be considered particularly contagious.

Highly infectious addiction carriers can be found in most drug use settings, always willing to induct newcomers, always pushing “just one more,” always pushing the furthest boundaries of risk.

In fact, some addiction carriers have, after their own recovery initiation, become quite effective recovery carriers as a form of amends for the past harm they caused to others by recruiting and inducting them into the culture of addiction.

So who and what exactly is this recovery carrier? The role is not unique to a particular pathway of recovery. Recovery carriers can be found in religious, spiritual, and secular recovery mutual aid societies and those in recovery without affiliation with any such group.

The role is not defined by age, the recovery carrier is not synonymous with elder status in communities of recovery, nor is it unique to a particular gender. It is not a role requiring superior intelligence or
academic achievement. I have seen people with advanced degrees inspired into recovery by those with meagre education.

Being a recovery carrier doesn’t require occupational success or social status. In the recovery world, value comes from much different sources.

The personalities and interpersonal styles of recovery carriers can vary markedly. Some are gifted with great energy and charismatic speech, others with serene wisdom and quiet dignity, still others with a self deprecating, healing humour. What they share in common is three observable traits:

1) People are almost magnetically drawn to them – even those needing but not actively seeking recovery.

2) They exude a kinetic energy that elicits confidence and readiness for action in those around them.

3) People who spend time with them and stay connected to them seem to recover and achieve a high quality of recovery.

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says to its readers, “Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it – then you are ready to take certain steps.” (italics added by author, Alcoholics Anonymous, 1939, p. 70.)

Recovery carriers are people who have more of those qualities that others want and a clearer understanding of the steps required to acquire such attributes in oneself.

The source and exact nature of this magnetic energy is unclear; it is not something one can acquire in school or a professional training programme. It is not so much what one knows or does, knowledge or actions that could be imparted by education or training, as much as who one is and how one relates to others.

I suspect, at least for the near future, that such traits can be identified, nurtured into maturity, and channeled into innumerable service channels but not artificially created where they do not naturally exist. I don’t think just anyone in recovery can be a recovery carrier. The history of recovery in America is filled with people who performed this role who were not in personal recovery.

I don’t think this is something you can decide to be. It is rather something that emerges within some people out of the very process of recovery or from experiencing what Ernie Kurtz (1996) described as their “own dark night of the soul.”

I think the traits so critical to this role must be fed to be sustainable. And yet I think it is quite possible that conditions could be set within a community and within communities of recovery (the image of community petri dishes with a rich growing medium comes to mind) within which recovery carriers can rise.

I suspect a major breakthrough of the future will lie not in further isolation of addicted individuals within institutional environments but in seeding their natural community environments with recovery carriers.”

6 comments - First published on: 22/04/2012

Derek’s new photo!

I can’t let such a momentous event as 26 months sober, a 50th birthday and most importantly a new photo go unmarked in blogworld!

Looking good Derek!

7 comments - First published on: 06/04/2012