Daily Message of Recovery

January 31

Trust

“Just for today I will have faith in someone in NA who believes in me and wants to help me in my recovery.” Basic Text, p. 93 Learning to trust is a risky proposition.  Our past experience as using addicts has taught us that our companions could not be trusted.  Most of all, we couldn’t trust ourselves. Now that we’re in recovery, trust is essential.  We need something to hang onto, believe in, and give us hope in our recovery.  For some of us, the first thing we can trust is the words of other members sharing in meetings; we feel the truth in their words. Finding someone we can trust makes it easier to ask for help.  And as we grow to trust in their recovery, we learn to trust our own. Just for today:  I will decide to trust someone.  I will act on that trust.

Daily Message of Recovery

Alcoholism and Addiction.

The solution is not in knowledge, strength and willpower so you can beat it. Recovery is about recognizing that, alone, you are powerless to solve the problem. 

To receive the grace you need to recover, you must admit you need help from something greater than yourself.

Daily Message of Recovery

Whosever is honest has nothing to fear.

Daily Message of Recovery

January 27, 2015

Learning how to live again

Page 27

"We learn new ways to live. We are no longer limited to our old ideas."

Basic Text, p. 56

We may or may not have been taught right from wrong and other basics of life as children. No matter, by the time we found recovery, most of us had only the vaguest idea of how to live. Our isolation from the rest of society had caused us to ignore basic human responsibilities and develop bizarre survival skills to cope with the world we lived in.

Some of us didn't know how to tell the truth; others were so frank we wounded everyone we talked to. Some of us couldn't cope with the simplest of personal problems, while others attempted solving the problems of the whole world. Some of us never got angry, even when receiving unfair treatment; others busily lodged complaints against everyone and everything.

Whatever our problems, no matter how extreme, we all have a chance in Narcotics Anonymous to learn how to live anew. Perhaps we need to learn kindness and how to care about others. Perhaps we need to accept personal responsibilities. Or maybe we need to overcome fear and take some risks. We can be certain of one thing: Each day, simply by living life, we'll learn something new.

Just for Today: I know more about how to live than I did yesterday, but not as much as I'll know tomorrow. Today, I'll learn something new.

NUCF Minutes Thursday 22nd January 2015

Minutes of NUCF

Date: 22/01/2015

Location: Plummer Court

Attendees: Andy Hackett, Nasir, Christine, Terry, Lee, Steve, Terry, Ryan, Tracey, James, Jill, Davey, Terry, Pam, Mandy Suzanna Prak

Apologises: Chris

Introductions round the table.

Agenda/discussion points:

Update on Client Advisory Groups and Events

Trading Places – Trading Places continues to do really well and operates with no issues. Averaging 35 people and then menu about to broaden to include sausages!

Plummer Court – Good volunteer presence at Plummer Court every Wednesday afternoon to give advice and support to people in the day centre.

Recovery Clinic – Terry and Gary continue to be visible at the Recovery Clinic and Mandy is now there on a Thursday too. Additional NUCF member to start next week on a Tuesday.

Special Guest Suzanna Prak – Recovering Identities through Culture and         Heritage. 

Suzanna talked about building community groups to re-engage people into museums. Potentially there will be different community based events happening in all the museums and galleries every day. 

The programs we talked about were targeted to be used by people in recovery.
The sessions can be diverse e.g. cooking and history or recovery focussed such as a recovery exhibition. 

The sessions would be free and although it would be better to book if possible people can just turn up and participate.

People would be able to see some of the archived museum pieces and potentially handle and study them (we were able to do that on the day with some football memorabilia).

Some additional ideas from the forum were around a recovery exhibition and some creative workshops.

These groups will start in April and there are also opportunities to be part of the overall advisory group for the project. Members were given further details on this from Suzanna. 

Check out the Recovering Identities through Culture and Heritage website for more information.

Training and Development Framework.

Discussion around formulating a training and developmental framework in place for the NUCF.

Aim to look at what training people want courses, financial advice and the idea to look at setting up satellite forums. A workshop around this will be the main agenda point at the next forum.

New Drug and Alcohol Service in Newcastle

The commissioning team made the offer to come back to the NUCF to update us on the next stages of this following the consultation process that the forum were part of. Commissioning team to attend NUCF 5^th March.

Joint User Carer Regional Forum Event

Monday 2 February in the SPACE Building at Newcastle College, Rye Hill Campus, Scotswood Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 7SA. 

There is parking and bus services stop close to the college and it is a 10 minute walk from Newcastle Central Station.

Refreshments will be served from 10.00am with the main event starting at 10.30am and finishing around 2.30pm.  Lunch will be provided.  The event will feature personal stories from service users and carers and news and updates from those involved in recovery and family support across the North East.

AOB

Terry reminded the Forum that Streetwise Opera are at the Recovery Centre every Thursday 1.0-3.00. Check out the Streetwise Opera website for more information.

Next NUCF 05/02/15

Venue Plummer Court

Daily Message of Recovery

Daily Reflections 26th January

RIGOROUS HONESTY

Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.'s message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn't care for this prospect - unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS p. 24

I am an alcoholic. If I drink I will die. My, what power, energy, and emotion this simple statement generates in me! But it's really all I need to know for today. Am I willing to stay alive today? Am I willing to stay sober today? Am I willing to ask for help and am I willing to be a help to another suffering alcoholic today? Have I discovered the fatal nature of my situation? What must I do, today, to stay sober?

Daily Message of Recovery

Daily Message of Recovery

Daily Message of Recovery

Daily Message of Recovery

One promise, many gifts

“Narcotics Anonymous offers only one promise, and that is freedom from active addiction...” Basic Text, p. 106 Imagine how it might be if we had arrived at the doors of Narcotics Anonymous, desperate, wanting to stop using drugs, only to be met by a sales pitch:  “If you just work the steps and don’t use drugs, you’ll get married, live in the suburbs, have 2.6 children, and start wearing polyester.  You will become a responsible, productive member of society and be fit company for kings and presidents.  You will be rich and have a dynamic career.”  Most of us, greeted with such a heavy-handed spiel, would have shrieked and bolted for the door. Instead of high-pressure nonsense and frightening predictions, we are greeted with a promise of hope: freedom from active addiction.  We feel a blessed relief come over us when we hear that we never have to use drugs again.  We aren’t going to be forced to become anything! Of course, after some time in recovery, good things start happening in our lives.  We are given gifts - spiritual gifts, material gifts, gifts that we’ve always dreamed of but never dared hope we’d get.  These, however, are truly gifts - they are not promised to us just because we become NA members.  All we are promised is freedom from addiction - and it’s more than enough! Just for today:  I have been promised freedom from active addiction.  The gifts I receive are the benefits of recovery.

Daily Message of Recovery

Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. AA p. 16

The essence of my spirituality, and my sobriety, rests on a round-the-clock faith in a Higher Power. I need to remember and rely on the God of my understanding as I pursue all of my daily activities. How comforting for me is the concept that God works in and through people. As I pause in my day, do I recall specific concrete examples of God's presence? Am I amazed and uplifted by the number of times this power is evident? I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my God's presence in my life of recovery. Without this omnipotent force in my every activity, I would again fall into the depths of my disease — and death.

Please feel free to post any messages directly on the Blog via the comments section of the Daily Message of Recovery or email to Andy H or Chris and we can arrange for them to be posted directly on the Blog for you.

Daily Message of Recovery

Daily Message of Recovery

Daily Message of Recovery

You may feel stuck with the crowd.

You may feel imprisoned by the walls of addiction and hopelessness.

But keep fighting.

The harder it gets, the greater the rewards.

Keep fighting and never give up!

Please feel free to post any messages directly on the Blog via the comments section of the Daily Message of Recovery or email to Andy H or Chris and we can arrange for them to be posted directly on the Blog for you.

Daily Message of Recovery

” Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us…. The only suggested guidelines are that this Power be loving, caring, and greater than ourselves.” NA Basic Text, p. 24

We’ve been told that we can believe in any kind of Higher Power we want as long as it is loving and, of course, greater than ourselves. Some of us, however, have trouble with these requirements. We either believe in nothing but ourselves, or we believe that anything that could be called “God” could only be cold-hearted and unreasonable, sending us bad luck on a whim.

Believing in a loving Power is quite a leap for some of us, for many reasons. The thought of turning our will and lives over to the care of something we think might hurt us is sure to fill us with reluctance. If we come into the program believing that God is judgmental and unforgiving, we must overcome those beliefs before we can be truly comfortable with the Third Step.

Our positive experiences in recovery can help us come to believe in a loving God of our own understanding. We have been given relief from a disease that has afflicted us for a long time. We’ve found the guidance and support we need to develop a new way of life. We’ve begun to experience a fullness of spirit where once there was only emptiness. These aspects of our recovery have their source in a loving God, not a harsh, hateful one. And the more we experience recovery, the more we’ll trust that loving Higher Power.

Just for today: I will open my mind and my heart to believe that God is loving, and trust my loving Higher Power to do for me what I cannot do for myself.

Please feel free to post any messages directly on the Blog via the comments section of the Daily Message of Recovery or email to Andy H or Chris and we can arrange for them to be posted directly on the Blog for you.

Daily Message of Recovery

We will do our best to post a Daily Message of Recovery on the NUCF Blog from today.

The message can be from any source as long as it carries a message of Recovery, Hope, Faith or Spirituality.

Daily Reflections January 12 ACCEPTING OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES

Our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are. This is to adopt a realistic humility without which no genuine advance can even begin. Again and again, we shall need to return to that unflattering point of departure. This is an exercise in acceptance that we can profitably practice every day of our lives. Provided we strenuously avoid turning these realistic surveys of the facts of life into unrealistic alibis for apathy or defeatism, they can be the sure foundation upon which increased emotional health and therefore spiritual progress can be built.

Please feel free to post any messages directly on the Blog via the comments section of the Daily Message of Recovery or email to Andy H or Chris and we can arrange for them to be posted directly on the Blog for you.

NUCF Minutes 8th January 2015

Date: 08/01/2015

Location: Plummer Court

Update on Client Advisory Groups and Events

Trading Places – Trading Places continues to do really well and operates with no issues. Communication to the NUCF that travel expenses would only be paid by Andy prior to Sunday there would be no opportunity to get fares at TP.

Plummer Court – Main update was that the Introduction to 12 step group on Wednesday would be reinstated within the next 2 weeks. Anyone wanting to be involved in facilitation to see Andy.

Recovery Clinic - Terry updated and said is going well supporting people in end of care and continuing care. Some clients from the clinic attended the NUCF again further opportunities for involvement – see Andy.

Special Guest – Dr Christopher Hartworth 

Christopher is a researcher doing work around the Super Strength Free scheme in the East End of the city. The pilot is based on a successful model running in Ipswich and is trying to avoid unsocial behaviour by street drinkers.

Christopher opened a discussion around would this discourage street drinking? Would it have a knock on effect in their lives? Would it lead to an escalation to different drinking e.g. from lager to vodka? Would it just mean people will go elsewhere to get the drink they want/need?

Feedback from the NUCF

People will go to any lengths and distance to get alcohol if they really want it

Younger people will buy anything they can to get the effects they want

There will always be under the counter sales

Allowing shops to sell to ‘regulars’  opens up the model for more abuse

Shops need to stop selling single cans and special cheap deals on alcohol

The scheme will lead to an increase in thefts

Some shops in the East End area are selling single vodkas that are being drunk in the shops.

There does seem to be fewer people sat around (this could be due to the weather)

Can we use ‘mystery shopper’ to see if the shops are abiding by their promises

The scheme could just move not tackle the actual problem

Solution would be to stop producing these super strength drinks

If the Ipswich model is embedded and working then we should give the Newcastle pilot a good chance too

Street drinking issues are rooted in poor housing options for those with substance use issues

Abstinent housing is needed

People need more things to do during the day to keep them off the streets

Can bar codes be added to the super strength bottles so they can be traced back to where they were bought from?

Lifeline Opportunities

Moving forward the forum will have a presence in Life Line Harm Reduction every Thursday morning. Depending on demand there may be additional opportunities for people to volunteer.
Opportunities available for peer mentoring work and qualifications via Lifeline. Anyone interested please contact Andy

Recovering Identities through Culture and Heritage

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums are offering some road show events. The R.I.C.H event has been designed to support people in and addiction and justice recovery across T&W. Suzanne will be coming to the next NUCF to give us more details and to explain how we can be involved.

Check out TW Museums

Joint User/Carer Forum New Year Event

The next joint service user and carer regional forum is taking place on Monday 2nd February at the SPACE Building at Newcastle College, Rye Hill Campus, Scotswood Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 7SA.

Show of hands indicated that everyone present would like to attend.

Streetwise Opera

Streetwise Opera will be running some sessions over 11 weeks at the Recovery Centre starting on 15th January.

Check out Street Wise Opera

AOB

Terry brought to the group an idea for a support group. Not just recovery issues but any and all issues that people may be interesting in discussing. It was agreed that if any members were interested they would liaise with Terry and if any support was needed from the NUCF then it would be discussed at the next forum.

Chris asked for more content for the blog so it can be kept up to date and relevant. Please contact Chris or Andy if you want to submit anything for the blog.

Check it out at NUCF

Next NUCF 22/01/15

Guest speaker – Suzanne Prak from Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums

Venue - Plummer Court

Chair – Andrea

Minute taker - Richard

Dry January

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