Tonight, a room was full of people affected by addiction or mental health in some way.
A community forum on recovery was held at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library for people who have battled addiction, and those looking for answers for loved ones.
The purpose of the forum was to raise awareness of recovery for mental health and addiction and some bring some form of hope.
The event coordinators said everyone talks about treatment, but not always enough about recovery and how to maintain it.
Many in the room were anywhere between a few months to over thirty years in their recovery process.
Speakers at the event said for some it’s easy to relapse, so peer support helps maintain a clean life.
A few shared personal stories about their road to recovery and are even now at the point that they want to help others recover as well.
“This is part of the solution. We talk about the problem a lot and this recovery is one of the primary aspects of the solution along with treatment and criminal justice and courts and other agencies and nonprofits that work in this field,” said Peace Zone executive director Mark Funkhouser.
Event coordinators hope that hearing other’s stories of their journey to recovery could hopefully give someone listening just even a bit a hope to keep pushing through.
(This article was originally published November 15, 2017)
