Recovery is a culture!
Michaela Jones
Imagine a culture that shares common values, despite class, gender, colour, belief, sexuality, disability, nationality or any other label you care to mention.
Imagine a culture that is finding itself – exploring arts and creativity, creating
new beliefs and ways of being, working out what it means to be part of this strange and eclectic group.
Imagine a culture taking responsibility for its own health, determined to stay well in a world that makes people sick – and help others to get well too.
Yet you do not need to imagine this community, it exists. But it is invisible. We are legion, but we are not represented anywhere.
Representations of people with addiction issues are all the same. Discussions about appearance are mainstream.
When you hear the word addict what do you see in your mind’s eye?
There are pictures circulating on the web at the moment of distressed children observing their parents overdose1. What we see of ourselves is negative. Unnatural. Criminal. Repellent.
In Wonderland we got naked. When we meet we always talk about this as a turning point. But what did it mean – why was it powerful?
Perhaps our feelings of shame were dissipated by looking at ourselves honestly - in a society that doesn't look honestly at itself.
When you hear recovery stories, one thing always comes up – the inability of people to look at themselves. Wonderland was the first time we had looked at ourselves with anything other than society’s eyes.
It was about not being ashamed. When we looked at ourselves we found we were not horrible, twisted monsters. It gave us the courage to do things we haven’t done before.
Nakedness is a metaphor for ‘hidden bits’ Ha! Addiction is a common but hidden experience. We came out visually.
And you know what? It felt so wonderfully good!