London kicks off Recovery Week

The second annual Recovery Day Rally was held in London on Monday afternoon at Covent Garden Market.

It featured speakers who have come through addiction and are now in recovery, who are willing to share their stories as a starting point to Recovery Week in the Forest City.

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Richard spent years going in and out of the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre until he was fortunate enough to come before a judge who decided his road to recovery might lie outside the prison system.

With the help of organizations like Addiction Services of Thames Valley, Richard was introduced to volunteering and from there began to carve out a place in the community. He admits he used to think he “knew everything” and was “in complete control of his life.” He now knows that wasn’t the case.

Recovery Day has been celebrated in Canada each September since 2012. It started in both Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. Since then, the movement has spread throughout Canada, to communities of all sizes.

The goal is to build awareness, challenge societal stigma and celebrate the role that recovery plays in improving the lives of millions of Canadians.

The London event is hosted by the London Addiction Recovery Breakfast Committee, which has been hosting events to celebrate Recovery for the past 11 years. The committee is comprised of community members and staff from Addiction Services of Thames Valley, Mission Services London, Salvation Army Centre of Hope and Turning Point.

One of the other speakers at Monday’s event was Samantha, who suffered years of sexual abuse and then found herself in a very abusive marriage later in life. She says she began to use drugs to help her deal with the pain of her abuse and things spiraled from there.

Now, Samantha is in recovery. She has reconnected with her family and is now not just a part of her grandchildren’s lives, but a fixture.

“It’s an ongoing battle. In a perfect storm anything can happen, so you just remember the positives and every day I pray and say thank you.”

Things have gone from very dark places to something as simple as being outside during the day.

“When I was using, I would never come out during the day,” says Samantha. “Being an addict is like a full-time job. You have to run around finding money and finding drugs. Now I wake up and play with my grandchildren.”

Samantha also works with other women who are battling addictions, to try to help them get to the place she has been able to get to.

Linda Sibley is the executive director of Addiction Services of Thames Valley. She says that addiction and recovery are now being brought out into the open.

“It is so important to have an ongoing community conversation,” says Sibley. “People can talk to their families, they can talk to their friends and really normalize that addiction happens and that recovery happens as well. That’s the part that people don’t get.

Monday’s rally was the kick-off to several events in London this week. There will be a screening of The Anonymous People at Wolf Performance Hall on Monday night, followed by a yoga event for people in recovery on Tuesday, a workshop on sharing your recovery story on Thursday, and then the 11th Annual Recovery Breakfast on Friday morning at the Hilton. The featured speaker at the breakfast will be actress Kristen Johnston, star of 3rd Rock from the Sun, who will share her story alongside members of the local recovery community.

For more information, please visit https://www.recoverydaycanada.com/london