‘You’re not alone’: Recovery Day in Calgary

Sunday is Recovery Day in Calgary–an opportunity to show those who suffer from addiction that recovery is possible.

On average, two Albertans die every day from an accidental opioid overdose. As the province continues to work with harm-reduction initiatives, treatment, and prevention, Recovery Day is building awareness and celebrating the role that recovery plays in improving lives.

Tom Morris with Transformation Retreats believes it’s time to remove the stigma surrounding recovery and to help people trapped in addiction to find a way out.

“The beauty of today is that there are many different pathways to recover, it’s not one-size-fits-all,” he tells CityNews. “The fact is that we want people to get free [from addiction] so that they can the fullness of their own personal life.”

He says having self-awareness is how you find a path to freedom.

“Eighty-five per cent of addicts are cross-addicted. In other words, we can be addicted to work, working out, food, alcohol, drugs, whatever… The symptoms, if you like, are not as important as the fact that they are connected together and that we’re all connected to some kind of recovery.”

Morris adds that days like today gives hope to those struggling.

“Nobody has an excuse anymore for not getting into a recovery [stage], for goodness sakes,” he says, calling the Recovery Day event at Poppy Plaza beautiful.


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“It feels like it normalizes something. I think if you look in our city there are many many people that are addicted all over the place. And yet, we hide it, we pretend that we’re not addicted. Today really shows our support for people that are struggling, and we’re willing to be open and honest about it.”

Morris has had his own struggles with addiction and recovery–he was in a rehab centre in Montreal for nine months as a 20-year-old. He’s now 43-years sober.

He says he’s received lots of support through a number of avenues, which has helped him in his personal journey.

As for a more public approach to addiction, especially amid an opioid crisis, he says the most important thing is education.

“Our understanding of addictions–since the mid-70s when I got sober–to understand co-dependency, to understand addiction from a neurological perspective…The movement has grown so that it’s not just one-size-fits-all like back in the day. Twelve steps used to be the only way [to overcome addiction] and now there are many different ways of entering into recovery. It’s grown in terms of its breadth and in terms of the research and understanding about recovery.”

He warns that if you’re trying to force someone into recovery, don’t expect positive results. He says the addict needs to want to recover and the best thing you can do is be there to support them.

Morris says if there’s one thing he hopes people take away from Recovery Day is ‘you’re not alone’, regardless of where you are in your journey to recovery.

“Whether you’re first-day sober or you’ve been sober for a while, it doesn’t matter. We’re together in this.”

-With files from CityNews

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