Recovery Days North Bay is celebrating nine years of providing hope and lessening the stigma associated with substance abuse and addiction.
Friday evening, committee members held an event where people shared their personal journey to recovery, and professionals provided the definition of addiction and what it looks like from a disease perspective.
All this while embracing this year’s theme Living Well in Recovery.
“North Bay is much the same as other communities across our country; we’re really in a pandemic around the disease of addiction and opioid overdose and crisis,” shared Wendy Prieur chair of the Recovery Days North Bay committee.
“But we’re trying to come up with some innovative solutions in North Bay and we have some great service providers that are trying to work together to help the clients that we serve.”
One of the evening’s keynote speakers, Clint Gore has been in recovery since 2007.
Gore shared the steps he took on his journey to recovery, including the importance of practicing self-forgiveness.
“That was the first, realizing that we make mistakes as we move forward. And with that comes self-compassion and self-love, and that leads to our self-care practices. They all kind of flow together,” shared Gore.
“One thing that I always point out is that it is all from within. We’re not looking for external validation or anything from the outside. Moving forward from that, we work on self-talk, the way we talk to ourselves about ourselves. It is empowering because when you start to identify in a different way, then your actions and your behaviour change. If you don’t believe in yourself, if you don’t think you’re worthy of anything, the effort you put in is very limited. When you start to change that story, then the sacrifice you’re willing to put in grows.”
Gore went on to explain that it leads to a change of environment.
“We have this belief in ourselves, we start putting work into ourselves, and we change the story that we tell ourselves, about ourselves. We then start to create community, create connections. It is just like this perpetual cycle that starts to change. We don’t get stuck anymore, we start to see change and then we start to believe, and there is hope. Then there are other people around us who feel that way and just creating an environment around ourselves that supports recovery. The process is fairly simple, but it is never easy. It is hard to be consistent and not let negativity slide in.”
Addiction therapist Pam King explained that recovery is a life-long process.
She also reminded people that family members are part of that community of recovery.
“Recovery is when someone gets to that point of realizing whatever it was that got them caught up in an addiction, wasn’t the solution.”
George Couchie spoke about the spark within, the inner light or energy.
“I always talk about that spark we carry inside of us. We need to look after that spark. You’re not supposed to talk down to your spark or abuse your spark. And you need to check on your friend’s spark every so often. Your spark can start a huge fire in the community,” explained Couchie.
“I always tell the kids to be that spark that lights up the room when you walk in, don’t be the spark that lights up the room when you walk out. We need to bring those sparks back in our community when we talk about recovery.”
Next year marks the 10th annual Recovery Days event.
“Our idea for next year is to really have a huge health and wellness fair. It could be things like meditation, support groups, it could be yoga classes, or going to the gym. It is looking at your life outside the addition,” shared Prieur.
“It is really concentrating on building a healthy life and what that would look like. So, we’re super excited for our 10th annual.”
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