How does a day in recovery go?

Hi my name is Tal, and I am an addict. I am an addict with 3 years’ worth of “clean time” which is a word that in this context means time without drugs. I may have 3 years behind me but I am still an addict, I still have the disease of addiction and I still struggle. I wanted to write a blog post containing what my life as someone with multiple disabilities and chronic pain is like in the context of my addiction recovery because life on life’s terms turns out to be a difficult thing too accept at times.

“Do We Really Need Subtitles?”//#deafawareness

I spend a vast amount of time watching TV, or rather I have done since lockdown, and because my ears are really bad at being ears, I have the subtitles on. Now, this has become second nature to me and I am quick to read from them and understand, for the most part, what is going on but I have found that since my hearing became worse when I turned 17, some people really don’t like subtitles and here is where I run into the question that frustrates me more every time I hear it.

25 Things to do when you are Suicidal

There are a million different ways to get trapped in your brain. To get purely engulfed in thought. You do it when your watching the football, you do it when you are engaged in conversation and you even do it when you are hungry. When you are 100% focussed on one thing you can often not be able to think of anything else. When you need a drink (a soft one, obvs!) you can get completely distracted by anything you are doing because you are only focussed on one thing, despite doing the essay you need to be writing or the book you are trying to read.

Face-Coverings and D/deaf Communication

So the question is- how does the hearing community communicate with people who both cant hear and cant see what they are saying? Lucky for you, dear reader, I am Deaf and am a lipreader so I am happy to give you my experience and pointers of what may help D/deaf and hard of hearing people be able to understand you…

The Joys of Being a “Frequent Flyer” with FND

As I sit in the emergency department of a nearby hospital, looking at dozens of familiar faces, it occurs to me that most of the people here that I have met previously are not being friendly. They are glaring at me with eyes that say “what are you doing here again?” and “I swear you were only here three weeks ago” and, well, they have a point.

Some Things I Believe…

Addiction is not a choice, recovery is.
My mum gives the best hugs.
Accessibility doesn’t stop at a ramp.
Everyone has potential.

Does Time Heal Trauma? // RecoveryTalk

You don’t want to rush through recovery only to be left with a platform that is all too easy to topple off. You want to set your foundations strong and revisit them as often as you need/want to keep them steady and reliable. And how do we do this?

Are We Attention-Seeking?

When someone with a mental health problem seeks help (often for a physical injury caused by their mental health eg; self harm, suicide attempt, a fall caused by substance misuse etc) they are often worried about being viewed as an “attention seeker” and as someone who has been that person, even if I am only able to talk about my own experience of this, it often feels like it’s the question everyone wants to ask us but rarely does…

GLOBAL hotlines

Just a quick list of some of the suicide hotlines that are available around the world.