Drug users are not dirty

Earlier today my attention was brought to an advertising campaign that I can only describe as sickening. Mersey Care NHS Trust have launched this wide campaign with the aim of "Getting more drug users in treatment and/or detox" and described the method used as "An innovative call for action". Sadly, they have only succeeded in further ostracizing an element of our society that already felt excluded and vulnerable.

Well I have news for you, Mr Bob Dale, service manager at Mersey Care NHS Trust addiction services. We are not in the dark ages. Drug users are not dirty, as your campaign portrays us to be. We are human beings, with feeling's and rights, may I add. How can you get it so wrong? How much did this atrocity cost the tax payer? This abomination only goes to highlight the failings of NHS substance misuse services in this Country. We have such a long way to go.

Mr Bob Dale, you do not deserve the position you hold and should do the honourable thing and resign.

Discrimination against minority's.

It seems like those with substance misuse issue's aren't the only one's being discriminated against by our Government. Last week I read with horror the plight of the retired Gurkha's in this country. Nepalese Gurkha's have served in our Army for over 200 years and yet on retiring only receive, on average, £131 a month, which pales in significance to their British counterparts.


The feelings are running that high about this disgrace that around 2000 Gurkha's attended Parliament to watch 50 of their veterans hand back their medals in protest at the Government's "immoral discrimination" against them.



On top of all this the Gurkha's that retired before 1997 don't even have an automatic right to stay in this Country. This is adding insult to injury, and needs to be addressed. Questions were raised at Prime Minister's question time and the PM's response was that Labour was the first Government to have raised the Gurkha's pension at all. This demonstration happened a week ago. Nothing has happened since then!
Well I'm very sorry Mr Brown, but this simply isn't enough. These people have spilt blood for this Country and then you stab them in the back.

What hope do minorities in this Country have when their Government can treat them unjustly and get away with it?

An interview with God

I dreamed I had an interview with God.

"So you would like to interview me?" God asked.

"If you have the time"

God smiled. "My time is eternity. What questions do you have in mind for me?"

"What surprises you most about humankind?"

God answered, "That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.

"That they lose their health to make money.... and then lose their money to restore their health.

"That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future.

"That they live as if they'll never die, and die as though they had never lived."

God's hand took mine and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked, "As a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?"

"To learn they cannot make anyone love them. All they can do is let themselves be loved. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. To learn to forgive by practising forgiveness. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in those they love, and it can take many years to heal them. To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least. To learn that there are people who love them dearly, but simply have not yet learned how to express or show their feelings. To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently. To learn that it is not enough that they forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves."

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly. "Is there anything else you would like your children to know?"

God smiled and said, "Just know that I am here.... always."

I came across this article and thought it contained a profound insight into life, and lessons that I for one would like to apply to my life. The beauty of this article being that it isn't just applicable to those among us who consider themselves to be spiritual or religious but for everyone. Love, worries and forgiveness are things that everybody experiences, and sometimes struggle with, in their lives.

In my recovery, I realised that holding in feelings of resentment and malice towards others, whether they actually deserved it or not, did nothing to harm anybody but myself. It was MY development in life that was held back by MY actions in not forgiving others, realising this and putting this model of forgiveness into action was self-empowering and an essential part of my recovery. I spent the darkest years of my addiction hating myself, I wouldn't even look in the mirror for many years, I have come a long way since those days but forgiving myself is something I still struggle with at times. When that happens I take a step back and assess my life, reminding myself how far I've come and that I can't change the past, I can only shape the future with my actions in the here and now.

Thanks to Joy Magazine.

Do you have a piece missing?

I was riding home on my bike earlier today when I noticed a bill board sign (see right) and it set me thinking about life, more specifically about making behavior changes in life.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow published a paper titled-"A theory of human motivation"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

which stated that each of us is motivated by needs, the lower order needs, physical and emotional well being, needing to be satisfied before we will be concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personnel development.

In my experience of addiction and homelessness there isn't a lot of understanding around this concept, I'm talking about professionals here! People who work day in, day out in the field, and if these people aren't passing this message to their clients then how is it going to be heard? Should we start treating those with substance misuse problems as equals and give them this kind of education or continue to try and bail out a sinking vessal, treating the symtoms but not the causes?

Put simply- How can somebody conquer their substance misuse problems when they don't have adequate information and education on possible ways of doing this?

There's a BIG piece missing.

I'm now a Blogger

Hi all,

I've decided to start this blog so I can share my experiences from addiction, recovery and day to day life. I intend to both blog and photoblog about my daily grind, successes, failures, hopes and dreams.

I'm totally new to this world of blogs, trolls, phlogs and tumblelogs and can't wait to get my teeth into it! So until tomorrow, goodnight and sleep tight.