William Bruce on the Path
William Bruce carries a tattoo with the number “40” at its center: four decades in recovery that began at 23 after a motorcycle crash, an opiate prescription, and an intervention. He reflects on the p…
Topic
Family and Loved Ones
For partners, parents, kids, and friends — Al-Anon, the rock-bottom myth, holiday survival, and the long work of loving someone in or near addiction.
47 stories
Live Free and Thrive
Brandy Rickaby is the executive director of New Generation, a shelter for pregnant women and mothers with young children. She also sits on the board of Hope on Haven Hill, where she once lived.
Full Circle of Light
Leslie Johansen Nack is an award-winning author, married 35 years to David. They recently shared their sobriety stories at a treatment center, as a sober couple once did for her almost 40 years ago.
Surprising Truths About Addiction
Patrick Chester looked like he had everything: a wife, two kids, vacations to Hawaii. No one saw the secret eating him alive for nine years. His gambling addiction left no bruises, no visible wreckage…
Why Waiting for “Rock Bottom” Can Cost Lives
Sarah watched her brother spiral for three years while people told her to wait for rock bottom. Then he nearly died from an overdose. What nobody told her is that rock bottom is a myth, and a dangerou…
Hope Through Love & Resilience: A Family’s Recovery Journey
Embark on a transformative journey with Linda and Melissa, guided by resilience, community, and unwavering hope. Discover the real, empowering stories that prove recovery is within reach, one step at…
Learn to Cope
A parent sits in a circle of other parents, hearing their stories for the first time. Someone mentions Narcan. Someone else talks about their child's treatment. Learn to Cope connects families facing…
James Rickrode
James Rickrode, a father of five, is seven years into recovery. He is vice president of Fresh Start Sober Living of Maine, which operates 17 recovery residences in the Bangor area.
Six Tips for Balancing Family, Career, and Anxiety
A parent sits down with their spouse after dinner and finally says what's been building for weeks: I can't do this alone. That conversation, hard as it was, became the turning point. This piece offers…
The Basics – Recovery
Someone returns to use after months sober. A family member finds out and wonders if recovery is even possible. Recovery from substance use disorder is a long-term process with multiple pathways forwar…
Danielle Rideout
Danielle Rideout is a counselor in private practice who works with individuals and families facing substance use disorder. She also teaches a recovery-friendly class at a Yarmouth gym.
Family Matters: Navigating the Challenges of a Loved One’s Addiction
A mother sits across from her therapist, finally naming the guilt she's carried for years. Her son's substance use disorder has reshaped her entire family, but she's learning she didn't cause it and c…
The Power of Positive Experience, A Source of Hope
A child learns their feelings matter when a parent listens. A neighbor brings over dinner after a hard week. These small moments reshape lives. Research shows positive childhood experiences buffer aga…
Reframing Relationships
A friend struggling with opioid use found steady ground not through romance, but through peers who showed up to cook meals, wipe tears, pick up her son from daycare. This piece explores why those frie…
Al-Anon: Mutual Aid for Families of Alcoholics
Finn walked into his first Al-Anon meeting terrified he'd break invisible rules. Instead, he found a room where people handed him their phone numbers and let him listen quietly, no judgment. He came h…
The Ahab Inside Me
A playwright learns his brother died from opiate addiction and reaches for what he knows: theater. Instead of seeking revenge against the disease, he stages plays that bring people with lived experien…
Recovery Discovery within Rejection
A toddler's cry goes unheard. A child learns their feelings don't matter. Years later, that person overworks, people-pleases, stays in situations that harm them. This article explores how early reject…
Sobriety is a Gift That Keeps on Giving
The writer of this story has chosen sobriety since June 14, 2001. Today that life includes a healthy marriage, lasting 12-step friendships, and the freedom of making real choices.
A Son, Softened Ed Crockett’s Story
Ed Crockett is the author of The Ghosts of Walter Crockett, a book about his father. After 30 years apart, the two found each other, and Ed says his dad taught him how to forgive.
Thriving During the Holidays
A person navigates a family dinner in December, watching others raise glasses while holiday music plays. The season brings joy for many, but for those in recovery from substance use disorder, the holi…
Generational Noor
When Amran Osman's brother died from an overdose, she realized her Somali community stayed silent about substance use disorder. Fear kept people from seeking help. Now the 24-year-old is breaking that…
Dave Smith
A young person in recovery asked Dave Smith if he ever thought about getting high again. Dave looked at his life: a twenty-year marriage, twelve grandchildren, a good job, a home. He realized the thou…
Carly and Brinn Flagg
Sisters Carly and Brinn Flagg both live in Maine now. They powerlift together and lean on a strong community. Carly's sobriety date is October 4, 2014, and the family has learned to talk things out.
Maine Voices of Recovery Issue #23
Rochelle Grant Kenney watches her grandson Sander call out "Mimi" across the living room in Hope, Maine. That voice reminds her daily of everything she regained when she got sober in 2009. Now she wor…
Brad Sorte
Brad Sorte kicks a soccer ball with his daughter, lunches with business partners, seems to have it all. But years ago, he was a boy without words for his pain, reaching for alcohol as his only tool. T…
Christine Maider
Christine Maider is a mother of four and a community activist with five years in recovery. She regained custody of her children and now helps other parents work for change in the system.
Disbelief to Belief
In a hospital gown, certain she had mono, a woman learned instead she was pregnant. Disbelief had ruled her life for years, keeping her trapped in addiction and denial. When facts finally overwhelmed…
Sarah Langevin
Sarah closes the bathroom door in her Auburn home, not to hide, but to breathe. Four children play beyond it. Inside, she thanks the frustration and anger visiting her body, then lets them go. This sm…
Al-Anon: Personal Experiences
Yaeko walked into her first Al-Anon meeting thirty-five years ago while her husband attended AA. She carried the belief that if she was smart enough, good enough, she could stop his drinking. Al-Anon…
Al-Anon Family Groups
Someone you love drinks too much, and you've spent months trying to control it, fix it, convince them to stop. You're exhausted and ashamed. Al-Anon Family Groups offers a different path: meetings whe…
Amanda Kurlanski – Trusting the Process
Amanda Kurlanski is a licensed counselor who helps others through recovery. She is married, expecting her third child, and working toward law school. She calls it "a big, beautiful life."
Tania Margate
Tania lives in Harpswell, Maine, and has been back in her nursing career for over a year. Her friendships and family ties are thriving. The last time she used was May 26, 2013.
Stephen Chabot
Stephen Chabot wakes at 4:34 AM to work out before his three young children stir, before the demands of leading Maine's largest elementary school begin. He's reclaimed mornings as his territory, he sa…
Conversations
Sarah sits across from her mother, bracing for the same argument they've had a hundred times. But this time, she pauses and asks something different. Journey explores how curiosity can transform famil…
The Nature of Family
A counselor remembers her turbulent childhood, the anger that followed, and the slow shift toward seeing her family history as a classroom instead of a wound. She discovered she could define family on…
Parents Dealing with their Kids Addiction and Alcoholism
When Karen and Eddie's daughter showed signs of substance use disorder, they asked themselves: Who do we turn to? Isolation and shame nearly consumed them until they found a family support group. This…
Family Support Groups : help, hope and support for loved ones
Susan sat in a Nar Anon meeting nine years ago, worried sick about her son's addiction and unsure where to turn. She discovered something unexpected: she needed support too. Through the group, she lea…
Eleanor Trask
Eleanor Trask is a Certified Recovery Coach, a mother and a student earning A's. Her daughter gave her a four-year medallion, and she loves who she is today.
Family Matters
Kaitlin MacKenzie asked her parents for one thing in early recovery: connection instead of judgment. Her father, a police chief, learned to lead with love. Her mother, a teacher, created space for hon…
Sarah Siegel
Sarah Siegel helps her three children out the door on a school morning, then heads to her job as a recovery coach. Twelve years ago, she was homeless, moving between treatment programs and survival. H…
Rotarians can make a big impact on addiction crisis
Lisa Hallee sat in a Portland Rotary Club meeting when she heard about the opioid epidemic ravaging Maine. The words landed hard: her nephew had died from an overdose months earlier. That moment spark…
Kayla Kalel
Kayla wakes early, drinks coffee, practices yoga, then heads to the beach with her nine-month-old daughter Trinity. A perfect day, she says, includes one essential thing: staying abstinent. In recover…
Amanda Lapointe
Amanda Lapointe thought vulnerability was weakness. In recovery, she learned it was the opposite. Now a sober single mom reunited with her daughter and family, she speaks at jails and treatment center…
Jennie Joan Ferrare
Jennie Joan Ferrare, 29, runs Arcana, a healing studio in Portland's Old Port, and its yoga school. She is coming up on five years sober and is a new mom to baby Leo.
Heather Huntley
Heather's granddaughter loves her nanny. Her sixteen-year-old has her back. She gave her kids their first real Christmas in years. These moments arrived because Heather stopped making bad choices and…