The Recovery Initiative

When I first stopped drinking, I thought the goal was simple.

Just don’t pick up a drink.

That was it. That was recovery.

And don’t get me wrong — stopping matters. It’s a massive step. But what I realised pretty quickly was that stopping alone doesn’t fill the gap that gets left behind.

Because addiction isn’t just about the substance.

It’s about what sits underneath it.
And a lot of the time, what sits underneath is disconnection.

• Disconnection from yourself.
• From other people.
• From how you feel.

That’s where The Recovery Initiative came from.

Not from a place of having all the answers, but from knowing what it feels like to be stuck, isolated, and not understood. From knowing what it’s like to sit with your own thoughts and feel like you’re the only one going through it.

I didn’t want to create something that just told people to stop drinking. There’s enough of that already.

I wanted to create something where people could actually connect.

Because when you start hearing other people say things you’ve been thinking but never said out loud, something shifts. When you realise you’re not the only one feeling like this, it takes some of the weight off straight away.

You don’t feel as alone in it.

That’s what this is built on.

• Real conversations.
• Shared experiences.
• No pretending.

People showing up as they are, not how they think they’re supposed to be. Talking about what’s actually going on, not just what looks good on the surface.

There’s something powerful about that.

Because connection does something that willpower alone can’t.

It gives you support when your head is all over the place. It gives you perspective when you’re stuck in your own thoughts. It gives you a place to go when things feel like they’re building up.

And it reminds you that you’re not doing this on your own.

That’s the difference.

Recovery can feel isolating if you’re trying to do it alone. It can feel like a constant battle in your own head. But when you’re around people who get it — not because they’ve read about it, but because they’ve lived it — it changes the experience.

It becomes something you’re part of, not something you’re fighting through on your own.

The Recovery Initiative isn’t about being perfect. It’s not about getting everything right.

It’s about showing up.

Even on the days you don’t feel like it.
Even when your head’s telling you to stay away.

Because those are usually the days you need connection the most.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this —

You can’t build a different life in isolation.

At some point, you have to let people in.

And that doesn’t mean telling your whole story to a room full of strangers. It can start small. Listening. Being around others. Saying one honest thing instead of nothing at all.

That’s where it begins.

That’s what this is about.

The Initiative runs on zoom Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7pm. We also have a Facebook group and Whatsapp group for participants to stay connected between zooms.