NOWrecovery.com

The Concept

The concept for NOWrecovery was born from evident needs felt by all those who are recovering from addiction, or those living with it.

• The need to share experiences, strategies, victories and heartbreaks.
• The need to learn from those who have already traveled the same path.
• The need to feel validated, appreciated, secure and confident in their efforts.
• The need to know that they are not alone.

From the above, we can see that effective addiction intervention, treatment & rehabilitation must be a collective effort. A social networking platform seemed therefore to be an ideal environment to help fulfill these needs.

The Mission

The development of this network was inspired by the spirit of a fraternity founded by several graduates of the Genesis therapy program offered by La Maison de Rehabilitation L’Exode inc in Montreal, Canada.

That therapy program, which was unfortunately shut down in October of 2005 due to a lack of financing, had helped hundreds of lost souls to find their way. The heartfelt feelings of gratitude and compassion expressed by graduates of that program have helped define this site’s mission and its goals.

Specific Goals

• The creation, maintenance and evolution of an actively focused social network.
• Support and mutual aid among network members.
• Involvement in community activities or organizations, both physical and online, to seek out those in need of help.
• Taking the initiative in offering addiction intervention assistance to peers and integrating them into the network.

The creation, maintenance and evolution of an actively focused social network.

The first objective of this site is to provide the context and the platform for the development of a network of individuals who

• have overcome their addictions
• have learned to deal with them
• are trying to deal with addiction
• have come to grips with the fact that addiction is a major problem in their life
• are wondering whether or not they can change
• want to prevent their dependency from becoming addiction
• are seeking to reduce the negative impact and consequences of substance use in their life, or that of a family member, friend or colleague
• are seeking to reduce the negative impact and consequences in their life due to substance use by a family member, friend or colleague

This is the primordial goal which allows for those who are seeking help to find it among a group of individuals who have experienced both addiction and rehabilitation. Mutual assistance among peers is recognized and encouraged by professionals in all fields of addiction intervention as being, by far, the most effective method of creating beneficial and durable change.

Support and mutual aid among network members.

The second goal of this site is to help prevent relapses among members as well as newcomers. This can be accomplished by

• encouraging and facilitating communication between members and newcomers with the provision of an efficient confidential means through which help and support can be offered and obtained
• the conscientious application of rehabilitation tools, strategies and techniques suggested by those who have put them into practice and who can therefore attest to their effectiveness

Involvement in community activities or organizations, both physical and online, to seek out those in need.

This site’s third goal is to encourage members to participate in community activities in order to seek out those individuals who they believe could potentially benefit from the assistance offered herein. These individuals could be those who

• overtly express their perceived inability to help themselves
• appear unaware of the negative impact and repercussions of their addiction
• are looking for help for a family member, friend or colleague
• want to learn about addiction through testimonials from “the other side of the track”

Taking the initiative in offering assistance to peers and integrating them into the network.

The fourth goal of this site is the most proactive of all. In order to offer assistance to those individuals noted in the previous goals, it is essential that personal contact be initiated. Only then may a message of hope and of help be shared with those suffering from both the disastrous consequences of addiction, and from the illusion that substance abuse may subdue their pain.

• Spread the word.
• Tell people that help is available.
• Ask them for the kind of help they are looking for.
• Provide them with references and referrals to those addiction intervention resources you know and trust.

Patrick Cohen

I sincerely hope that the information presented on this page – and that which can be found throughout the network – will help you on your own journey of recovery.
– Patrick Cohen, site developer/admin