Searching for Signs of Recovery: How Early Recovery Is Like Springtime
The calendar promised it was the first day of Spring. But looking outside my window and walking around town recently, you couldn’t prove it by me. Our mountains are still covered with scruffy, bare-limbed trees giving them the appearance of a 5-o’clock shadow minus the shadow as we’ve had little sunshine to cast them on […]
Recovering in the Shadows: Breaking Our Addiction to Shame
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word stigma as “a mark of shame or discredit.” As human beings, we naturally encounter a wide range of emotions on a daily basis. Shame is a bitter feeling that some of us experience more than others. Many addicts in recovery experience shame when interacting with people outside the recovery community, […]
New Year’s Family Resolutions for Recovery
When someone we love embarks on a recovery journey, it represents a unique opportunity for everyone in the family. It opens the door for not just one recovery, but many. But where does this door lead? And what exactly does recovery mean? When many of us first enter recovery, we set our sights too low. […]
The Beauty of Change: From Precontemplation to Sustainable Recovery
Every fall, nearly 11 million visitors descend upon the town of Asheville to enjoy the legendary fall colors that set our Blue Ridge Mountains ablaze. What is truly interesting is all the work that must happen before the mountain foliage gives the first hint of change. First the leaves stop producing food, then their chlorophyll […]
Strength in Surrender: My First Days at Next Step Recovery
We often fail to realize that there is strength in surrender. Sometimes though, the path to recovery requires it. A recent graduate of our program said it best: “It was February 2016, and I had just been discharged from a treatment center because of refusal to adhere to the program’s rules. When I arrived at […]
Next Step Staff Stories: Elliot Kimball – Resident to Recovery Case Manager
Elliot’s recovery story I arrived at Next Step on July 24, 2015. It was my mother’s birthday. Two months prior, my active addiction culminated in traumatic fashion. I woke up in a hospital bed, unsure as to how I got there. I soon realized how fortunate it was that the outcome wasn’t substantially worse. That […]
A True Story of Hope
My name is H**** E******. I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I now reside in the peculiar little city of Asheville, North Carolina. I love it here, and I couldn’t really ask for more than what I’ve got in my life today. My life had always been a good one; the people around me […]
