SMART Recovery & Recoverlution Unite For Recovery
By Daniel Fincham on
During May the campaign Unite for Recovery encourages people from all walks of life to come together to raise money, so that more people can access free addiction recovery.
The campaign has been launched by SMART Recovery who offer free addiction help, treatment and support to those affected by addiction. The funds raised will ensure that SMART Recovery, a registered charity, can continue to meet the ever-growing needs of the addiction recovery community.
Recoverlution and SMART Recovery are already partnered as we feel uniting for recovery brings all the needed resources more strength and reach. By partnering with a worldwide organisation such as SMART, we hope to get more people who need help into long-term recovery sooner.
What is...
Recovery Story - Lily
By UK SMART Recovery on
How did your addictive behaviour develop?
Looking back, I think I had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol from a very young age. I started drinking at about 11 or 12 with my mum. Only a little at that point but I was never satisfied and always wanted more, sneaking alcohol into the house, and stealing my mum’s alcohol.
However, things got really out of hand when I started ‘self-medicating’ with it, to feel better when I was depressed, cope with trauma and anxiety. It became an emotional crutch.
What challenges were you facing?
Life was unravelling at an alarming rate of knots. I had been done for drink driving, had lost three jobs due the in direct results of my drinking. I was becoming increasingly isolated and realised that I had...
NHS stops taking gambling funds to treat addiction
By BBC on
The NHS will stop taking money from the gambling industry to treat people with addiction, the NHS England national mental health director has said.
Writing to charity GambleAware, Claire Murdoch said the NHS would instead fund its own gambling services from 1 April.
The gambling industry paid 16m to GambleAware between April and December to help fund treatment services.
Of this, 1.2m was awarded in grants to NHS-run gambling clinics.
But Ms Murdoch said patients were uncomfortable about using services paid for by the gambling industry - and she said that had "heavily influenced" her decision to reject future funding from GambleAware.
She said industry funding "has allowed us to roll out treatment services faster than would have otherwise...
Police Scotland rolls-out naloxone programme country-wide
By DDN on
Police officers across the whole of Scotland are to be equipped with and trained in the use of naloxone, Police Scotland has confirmed.
The national roll-out follows pilot schemes in Caithness, Dundee, Falkirk, Glasgow and Stirling that saw more than 800 officers trained to use naloxone and more than 650 volunteer to carry nasal spray kits.
All operational officers across the country will now carry naloxone spray, says chief constable Iain Livingstone, following an independent review last year by the Scottish Institute for Police Research which recommended a national roll-out. Work has already commenced to ensure there are sufficient stocks of naloxone to equip more than 12,000 police, along with a national training programme. The...
Glasgow Taxis Supporting #StopTheDeaths
By SDF on
More than 20 drivers for Glasgow Taxis have applied to receive and carry naloxone as part of the nationwide initiative to reduce drug deaths.
Drivers who apply to carry the opioid overdose reversal medication will have it in their cabs as they complete their journeys in and around the city.
The taxi firm were one of the first to take a step forward and show support for this initiative, advertising their advocacy with an emblazoned car that can be seen around the city, carrying the #StopTheDeaths message.
The joint initiative by the Scottish Government and Scottish Drugs Forum has used TV and radio adverts and billboards at transport hubs and shopping centres to promote the message that drug deaths in Scotland are preventable.
Drugs...
What gambling firms don’t want you to know – and how they keep you hooked
By Rob Davies on
Recovery Story - Matthew
By UK SMART Recovery on
I had been using my Destruction of Choice for more than twenty years. I originally heard about SMART several years ago, whilst I still lived in England and even attended a few meetings. I was self-medicating with alcohol and had no real desire to abstain and was attending to appease my employer. I had the irrational belief that “moderation” could, and was, working for me. I quickly found excuses not to attend, citing other more important commitments. I felt that my “moderation” of two bottles of wine per night (instead of a litre bottle of Vodka) was a marked improvement and everyone got wasted at weekends so that wasn’t an issue anyways.
However, after too many failed attempts to moderate, and my weekend activities starting to creep back...
Recovery Story - Graham & Angela
By UK SMART Recovery on
How did your addictive behaviour develop?
Graham: I began drinking when I left school and started my apprenticeship. Every Friday we all went to the pub. The drinking culture was everywhere, in my engineering jobs, and in the police. Then I got a job as a pub landlord. I thought I had to drink to have a good time and working in a pub was a great opportunity to drink all day and night.
Then I met Angela 25 years ago, I stopped smoking, but I didn’t stop drinking. I was a good pub landlord and we won awards, but no one seemed to realise I was under the influence all the time. Like many people I hid bottles everywhere to be sure I would always have access to alcohol. I was drinking a lot, but I thought I had it under control. I also thought...
Recovery Story - M
By UK SMART Recovery on
It was a few days before Christmas, and I was driving somewhere with my wife when a disagreement arose. I can’t even remember what it was about. A few minutes later, all was forgotten, and we moved on. Nothing special about that, just an ordinary domestic squabble, except….
Except, in the not-so-distant past, this tiff over nothing could well have spiralled out of control. It could have ended with me taking solace in drink and damaging the holiday for a whole lot of people, including myself.
What made this Christmas different was that I was able to handle the inevitable ups and downs, especially the day-to-day anxieties, the loneliness, anger and hurt feelings, that for me so often seemed to be ingrained in the season itself. I was...