Danielle Rideout
Danielle Rideout was 12 when she first tried alcohol on a Maine island where everyone knew her name. But community wasn't enough to fill the void she felt. Drugs and alcohol seemed to do what nothing…
Articles by Jacqueline Brown
Exploring Treatment Options
A person calls a treatment center unsure whether they need detox, a residential program, or weekly outpatient sessions. They don't know where to start. This article breaks down Maine's treatment optio…
A New Generation, Recovery-Friendly College Campuses
On college campuses across the country, students in recovery remain invisible, their struggles hidden behind stigma and assumptions. Yet nearly half a million undergraduates identify as in recovery fr…
Westbrook Provides Help for Overdose Prevention
Janet Dosseva watches staff members practice administering naloxone in the Westbrook library. It's a small action, part of a larger shift: her community coalition is stocking life-saving medication in…
SaVida Health: Addiction Treatment Program
Kyle spent years seeking help from program after program, carrying labels that made him feel like a burden. At SaVida Health, something shifted. His counselor saw past the addiction to the person unde…
Food Addicts Anonymous – Nourishing the Self
Elizabeth turned to food as a child to survive trauma, moving through restriction and purging before losing control entirely. Her story reveals how food addiction progresses differently for each perso…
Larry Labonte Recovery Center
When Lonnie Labonte lost friends to overdose and suicide, he knew exactly what to do with his inherited business space. Working with his mother Kathie, a person in recovery herself, they built the Lar…
Employers Play a Vital Role
Doug Dunbar sat in jail wondering who would help the young, poor, sick people around him find the resources they desperately needed. Now a recovery specialist himself, he knows the answer: employers w…
The Phoenix
A woman drove past the gym five times before she found the courage to walk in. She had no fitness background, just a feeling she needed something. Today, she's a strong CrossFit athlete in recovery. T…
Seabreeze Property Services
When someone notices a perfectly manicured lawn in Maine, they might be looking at work done by a person in recovery. Seabreeze Property Services, the state's largest landscaping company, has built so…
Hiring People in Recovery
Dana Lariviere got a phone call two years after firing Sarah, an employee who struggled with attendance. She was calling to apologize, explain her heroin addiction and recovery, and ask for her job ba…
Willa Wirth – A Force of Nature
Willa Wirth crafts silver pendants shaped like cresting waves and earrings that shimmer like moonlight. Her jewelry is instantly recognizable as masterwork. It's also the work of a woman in recovery w…