From Down-Under: Words of Wisdom and Insight

Kerrie Atherton joins the INTERSECTIONS Exchange team all the way from Queensland, Australia to share her thoughts on honesty in addiction and the importance of sharing recovery stories. Atherton also discusses her Stories of Hope program and how she has found both success and support from sharing her recovery journey with others.

Topics Discussed

• Kerrie Atherton’s addiction and recovery journey
• Role of shame in peoples’ struggles with addiction and recovery
• Stigma around addiction compared to other illnesses
• Effects of isolation and loneliness in addiction
• Importance of hearing other people’s stories in recovery
• Summary of the work done by Stories of Hope
• Differences in recovery based on sex, age and other factors
• Music and recovery

Resources

• Stories of Hope Australia
• EMPOWER Life Solutions
• Kerrie Atherton Books
• How do I tell my parents I have an addiction?
• What does peer support look like? 
• I feel alone and want to use or drink

Key Quote(s)

• “I’m a big believer in that if we can stand and share our stories, that brings great hope for the person who’s sitting there, totally isolated, totally hopeless, thinking that they can’t go on another day…there’s nothing like a lived experience story to let somebody know that there is hope and that they’re going to make it as well.” – Kerrie Atherton
• “We have to get to a society and a world where people feel comfortable enough to listen and to vent and allow people to talk about what they’re dealing with, and then show empathy and non-judgemental responses.” – Andrew O’Grady
• “The first thing I tell my patients is that I’m not your hero. I’m not your hero because you’re not broken.” – Dr. Larry Force
• “Part of addiction is delusion…when the delusion sets in we try to point to other things and change everything but our behavior…but we take ourselves with us” – Kerrie Atherton