You’re never quite right again after feeling the life exit a person’s body, especially when it’s your younger sister. That’s when the road to disfunction and addiction began in my life. Being a young girl of only nine years old, the loss of my sister Debba Jean was crippling for me emotionally, mentally, even physically, …

The Phoenix · From Addict to Mentor: A Story of Hope Despite his gregarious, nice-guy persona, Randy Anderson was a hard case. He didn’t want to live anymore after his wife left him, so he took to using more drugs and selling them, hoping that would do him in. Good at sales and determined to …

A real friend is the gift of a lifetime. It is special someone who is in your life in a significant way. Good friendship is a sacred two-sided connection with a person we have much in common with yet also respects differences with each other. A real friend knows our worst qualities and challenges us …

We feature an expert in the mental health and substance use disorder field to answer questions. This issue we talk to Ed Treat of The Center of Addiction and Faith about finding hope while in recovery / dealing with mental health issues.  Q: How does having a sense of hope impact someone’s overall mental health …

If you, or someone you know, is in an abusive relationship call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Calls are confidential. I want to start by saying that not all addicts are abusers. And not all abusers are addicts. But in my case, he was. Both. Well, perhaps an “addict in denial,” but most definitely an abuser. Of course, …

“Hope begins in the dark.” Anne Lamott Throughout my life, that little thing called hope has refused to go away. Even in some of my darkest moments, hope sat there, like a little flame in the darkness, quietly glowing and waiting for me to notice it again. Through blinding tears, I’ve seen it shimmer and …

A new year has begun, and I hear deep yearnings for hopefulness in the people I connect with in and out of the recovering communities. This has led me to reflect upon hope and what can help us both develop and maintain hope. Consider these three dimensions: Imaginative, cognitive, and supportive. My reflections upon hope …

The Phoenix · Threshold to 2022 “Thresholds are dangerous places, neither here nor there, and walking across one is like stepping off the edge of a cliff in the naïve faith that you’ll sprout wings halfway down. You can’t hesitate, or doubt. You can’t fear the in-between.” — Alix E. Harrow We are once again …

The Phoenix Spirit is posting this letter from interim Twin Cities Recovery Project (TCRP) President, George Lewis. Our condolences to the families of Marc Johnigan, Dwayne Jackson and Dwayne’s sister Denise Anderson who were involved in this tragedy. An online fundraiser has been setup for Johnigan’s family. It is with intense sadness that the Board …

Part of human existence, and having the ability to reason, is seeking answers to the question, Why? As a child, when we become aware of our surroundings and start to learn the way of things, we begin to ask why questions. We are curious, we want to know how things work, why they are the …