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
Treatment and MAT
Treatment options, medication-assisted recovery, and what it actually looks like to walk into care. Plain answers to the questions people are afraid to ask.
19 stories
Pathways to Recovery
Someone recovers in a hospital bed. Someone else sits in a church basement. A third person decides at their kitchen table that life has to change. Each of these moments looks different, but they all p…
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 as Medicine
Two hundred fifty-five people walked into rehab on the same day. They received identical treatment. One year later, only those who arrived believing recovery was possible showed real improvement. The…
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…
The Basics – Addiction
When someone's brain becomes wired to crave a substance the way it craves food or water, addiction takes hold. It's not weakness or bad character. It's a medical condition affecting the brain's reward…
The Basics – Treatment
When a family first hears "treatment is available," the options can feel overwhelming. This guide breaks down the landscape: residential programs, outpatient care, therapy types, and medications that…
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…
Rise to Recovery: Maximizing Your Time in Treatment
You're walking through the doors of a treatment facility for the first time, unsure what comes next. Stan Popovich offers five practical strategies to help you get the most from your time there: follo…
Steps to Well-being: Navigating Recovery with Hope and Support
You're lying awake at three in the morning, your body aching for something it no longer gets. This excerpt explores what comes after you decide to stop, when the real work begins. Learn how attending…
Your Brain and Addiction
Scientists can now show what addiction looks like inside the brain: less active decision-making centers, dopamine systems flooded beyond normal. Understanding these physical changes matters because it…
Josh Colwell
Josh Colwell is a husband, father, and Certified Recovery Support Worker at a treatment center in New Hampshire. Sober since October 2018, he works to make recovery easier to reach.
Three Health Benefits of Medication-Assisted Treatment
A pregnant person in recovery faces withdrawal symptoms, stigma, and fear of harming their baby. Medication-assisted treatment combined with peer support addresses these specific challenges. Research…
Wendy Ayres – Night Shift filled with Light
Wendy works nights at a residential treatment facility, staying awake when residents need someone who understands. Nearly eighteen years in recovery, she listens with the wisdom of someone who survive…
Changing Our Lives
At six months sober, the author sat in a treatment facility not because she'd returned to use, but because she didn't know how to live without substances ruling her days. She was working in mental hea…
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…
Medication Assistance
Sarah Siegel stood at a crossroads, feeling death hover over her shoulder as heroin gripped her life. Then a doctor offered another path: methadone. She chose it, and that choice became her choice to…
The Farm – Maine’s oldest co-ed treatment center
Michael Yerema has watched people arrive at The Farm for 25 years, many from detox units or jail cells. Maine's oldest residential treatment center, nestled minutes from the Canadian border, offers so…
Lisa Silverman
Lisa Silverman sits in a coffee shop, radiant and grounded, a far cry from 1989 when she drank to blackout and felt trapped. After treatment and holistic training in meditation, nutrition, and breathw…