MELODY ROSE PAUL Accessing Recovery Supports Letting Go
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making recovery from addiction visible ISSUE 14 MELODY ROSE PAUL Bangor, Maine Accessing Recovery Supports Everyone’s Welcome + Peer Support Letting Go No Longer Carrying the Weight of My Past PAID ADVERTISEMENT ADDRESSING MAINE’S OPIOID EPIDEMIC TOGETHER. As we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis persists in communities across our state. That’s why we’re bringing organizations together and sharing best practices to help ensure individuals and families have the resources they need. Learn more about the Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative of Maine and our partners at rali-me.org. PAID FOR BY RX ABUSE LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE journeyISSUE 14 Publisher Carolyn Delaney Layout Joline Violette Edwards PRIVATE GIFTS Photographer Brian Delaney A very special thank you to these people ISSUE 14 Contributors Alison Jones Webb who have helped to support Journey Amy Paradysz getting to the printer. David Lee Elaine Shamos click on Private Gifts on our website for more info Glenn Simpson Kimble Greene Niki Curtis Thank You! Tyler Hall Zoe Brokos Journey Team Barbara Conner Brenda Briggs Anonymous x 9 Leslie Clark Bruce Campbell Amy and Noodles Karen Stultz, CHt, CIWC Mary Atwood Jennifer Kimball Johnson Dennis & Debbie Gallant Mickie Kucinkas Nancy Wolach Sandra Stone Courtney Allen Susan Axelrod M.C. Hothem, DO Josh Riddle MaineWorks Dean Raymond Susan Britton Pettingill Lowell & Ella Brown [email protected] The Family Restored Rebecca Laber-Smith (207) 679-5005 Bella Vida Hypnosis B. Owens-DeWitt Portland, ME 04101 Isaac Shainblum Mandy Schumaker www.journey-magazine.com Bob Dawber Dave & Karen Packhem Stephen Andrew, LCSW LADC Mickie Kucinkas Mommabear7♯☮❤� Bill & Linda Lundborg Cover Barbara Lamont Barbara Sullivan Melody Rose Paul Karen St. Clair Mary Atwood photo by Brian Delaney Connie & Michael Mercer Craig & Lisa Elaine D Blanchard Doug Dunbar CONNECT Celia Grand, LCSW, BCD Lisa Graves WITH US Body & Soul Health Solutions Phil & Linda Coupe /recovery.journey.in.maine Elizabeth Burke Beaty From the publisher s we go to print with this For me that meant a focus on AJourney issue #14, I’m my physical and emotional well- reflecting on this past year. being—a stable and safe place to live and making informed Last year at this time, it seemed decisions on healthy choices that like my life was a 1,000 piece were now available to me. puzzle that someone had taken out of the box but there was no It meant surrounding myself with Recovery is a process of change cover to show the picture the people who had been where I had and change is constant. When pieces were supposed to make. been but weren’t living in that we participate in community, world anymore, and taking the we’re not alone at any time. Our We had just gone into lockdown, suggestions they offered on my excerpt article from the book everything seemed scary, and new path. Stealth Camping with Me and there was no clear visual of what Hundreds of My Closest Friends, is life would look like. My initial thought was that I from an anonymous traveler who was so different. That I had led has attended AA meetings in 48 This morning I realized it was a very different life and didn’t different states. similar to the early days of feel like I belonged anywhere. recovery. All I knew was that I But the reality is that many of us In our next issue, we’ll debut a didn’t want to keep living the feel that way. We call it “terminal new column, “The Anonymous way I was living, doing what I uniqueness” and it’s common in Path,” personal recovery stories was doing, and yet I didn’t know the recovery community. with first name/last initial only— things could be any different. for those who want to share their But eventually, I found my people, lived experiences recovering Thankfully, I landed in a half-way my peers. Eventually, I found in a 12-step community while house, Evodia, and the staff there others I could connect with on a respecting the longstanding gave me a framework by which deeper, spiritual level and today I tradition of anonymity. to start living a new way of life. am still a seeker and grateful for The women there (12 of us) and my own path. And finally, a big welcome those who showed up for support to Bruce Campbell, our new provided a picture of what life For some of us, finding and Northern Maine Accounts “could” look like. building community with our Coordinator with decades of peers takes a few extra steps, and personal recovery in addition I “could” feel comfortable in my in this issue we look at various to program and community own skin, I “could” find stacked accessibility challenges and building experience. moments of peace and serenity on successes. a daily basis—this type of living Our goal is to be available seemed more accessible to me by Amy Paradyz explores several of statewide by the end of 2021 virtue of others’ sharing their these groups in Accessing Recovery and with this issue, we start personal experiences. Supports. In Coming to Faith, Niki expanding into the Bangor area! Curtis writes about letting go But first things first. of past personal experiences to With immense gratitude, access a faith that works. visible recovery saves lives In this issue 6 ......... Accessing Recovery Supports 9 ......... Meet Journey’s Newest Team Member 9 10 ....... Personal Recovery Story: Melody Ross Paul 12 ....... We Have Superpowers! 14 ....... Bringing Love Into the Room 16 ....... Letting Go 10 18 ....... Couples in Recovery 20 ...... Coming to Faith 22....... When in Doubt, Choose Challenge 24 ...... Personal Recovery Story: Tania Margate 26 ...... Excerpt from Stealth Camping with Hundreds of My Closest Friends 28 ...... Managing Finances 16 30 ...... Funding Community Centers in Every Maine County 31 ....... Maine’s Recovery Community Centers 32 ...... Spirit Illuminated 24 33 ...... Recovery Programs 34 ...... Statewide Resources visible recovery saves lives Accessing Recovery Supports Everyone’s Welcome + Peer Support by Amy Paradysz e talk about the “recovery recovery community to better staff and residents, faith-based Wcommunity” as if there is support their needs. organizations, mental health and one—when, in fact, there are many. substance use professionals, and The recovery community is as Re-Entry nonprofits that can help with diverse as humankind. Substance everything from housing to job use disorder doesn’t discriminate When Bruce Noddin volunteered training to financial literacy. based on age, race, religion, gender, with Catholic Charities prison or sexual orientation and neither ministry and saw the same “The really cool thing that’s going does the recovery community, people appearing back in the on is the level of cooperation which tries to offer help and hope system repeatedly, he stirred up and collaboration that we’re able for everyone. But, within the some good trouble—asking what to do with the Department of larger recovery community and more could be done to reduce Corrections and with Sheriffs’ “everyone’s welcome” groups, many recidivism. Departments,” Noddin says. “We people in recovery find it helpful had this idea of going into prisons to also find a small group of peers From that conversation with five prior to release and introducing with whom they share more in people in June 2017 has evolved a the residents to community common than just substance use. Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network resources. And everyone involved (MPRN) connecting a statewide has embraced and included us in For this story, writer Amy web of people interested in helping everything that they can.” Paradysz gathered insights from make the transition to life after professionals who work with prison more successful. While COVID-19 protocols some of the branches of the have meant that meetings with recovery community family tree— “The excitement is contagious,” residents are on Zoom, being people who have experienced says Noddin, founder and remote has made it possible for incarceration, elders, adolescents, executive director of MPRN. MPRN to help even more residents. mothers, and the LBGTQA+ “We’ve had 60 or more people community. These professionals show up some weeks.” “We’ve had 350 meetings with talked about challenges and residents since April 1 of last year,” successes, and provided tips for Zoom calls connect Maine Noddin says. “Imagine being a empathizing with others in the Department of Corrections person in prison who has been out 6 ISSUE 14 recovery-journey.com a couple of times and been back level, and even whether they’re generation that grew up talking and never had any support, really, eating well. about “trauma” or “substance use and then having seven people in disorder,” and may not want to a Zoom meeting with all these “Aging is a condition of losses,” think of themselves as an “addict” people interested in you and your Menard says. “We have to look at or “alcoholic.” success. That’s pretty cool!” what’s going on and why they want to numb their feelings But, often, they do want to talk. Noddin, who is in long-term and memories.” recovery himself, says that the And if they’re losing control vast majority of people in Maine Consider the experiences to substances, in the midst of prisons have struggled with of aging—leaving behind a losing control in so many other substance use. As a result, the professional life, downsizing and ways, regaining control can be a goals of re-entry and recovery are giving up decades of collected motivator for recovery. tightly linked. possessions, making do in a body that doesn’t work as well as it once “Some come in for a session once a “A peer support or a recovery did, or, after decades of marriage, month for an atta-girl or an atta- coach can be huge,” Noddin says.