July 28, 2021 A new joint project of The Conservation Foundation and Recovery International combines cognitive-behavioral mental health tools with images of nature from northern Illinois parks. Find relief during these stressful times with a walk in the woods, thoughtful and calming tools, and journaling or doodling! Released in time for May, Mental Health Awareness […]
New Anti-Stress Program Serves Youth
November 20, 2020 Power Your Mind: Tools to Build Resilience, a new workbook that uses graphic novel panels to illustrate stressful situations and healthy ways of coping, has been released by Recovery International (RI) to help children, teens, and emerging adults deal with feelings of anxiety, anger, or depression. “Being a teenager can be tough,” […]
Harmony Quotes
September 2, 2020 Harmony Women’s Recovery Program, San Diego (December, 2016) Harmony serves single and parenting women who have substance use disorders. I’m grateful to Recovery International for: It has helped me with my anger by not wanting to explode. Spotting helps me calm down. I like how RI’s main focus is on mental health! […]
Recovery International Celebrates 80th Year
Recovery International—the “granddaddy” of non-profit mental health self-help groups—is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a year-long series of local, regional and national activities. Often imitated, we are the original. Initially founded as The Association of Former Mental Patients and Their Relatives in 1937, it soon changed its name to Recovery, Inc., to avoid the stigma of mental illness pervasive in […]
How recovery international helped me stay sober – and alive
It is no exaggeration that the tragic excuse for a family into which my younger sister, Lois, and I were born, was characterized by a fierce, despairing craziness which, when mixed with alcohol, killed my mother and her sister, my brother and my sister, and almost killed me. Lois and I lived in that appalling […]
Post-Partum Depression
I was first treated by a psychiatrist when I was 19. Shy and nervous, preoccupied and fearful, I was called a spoiled brat and told to grow up. By the time I visited a psychiatrist a second time; I was married and had my first child. I was overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy, fearfulness and […]
Obsessive-Compulsive and Eating Disorders
Before my Recovery International training, I didn’t have a life. My obsessive-compulsive disorder consumed many of my waking hours. Anorexic, I couldn’t hold a job. I trained at a gym for three hours every day because I thought I was fat. I joined Recovery International three years ago and have held a job for two […]
Stress
Having been employed as an ironworker for 25 years, I began to develop both physical and mental stress. My parents’ health declined and eventually they died. Enormous stress forced me to retire on disability. I started experiencing intense and debilitating physical symptoms. I didn’t know why, but I was more nervous than ever. This nervousness […]
How Recovery International Helped Me Stay Sober
My name is Bob and I’m an alcoholic. I am also a nervous person and it helps me to address both issues in Recovery International. In former days, I remember thinking, while alone drinking in a bar, “You should be doing so much more with your life.” Well, today I am, but the road has […]
Depression
My life became difficult at age eight. I was filled with fear and feelings of inadequacy. School and being around people got tough; however, I finished high school, got a job and was drafted into the U.S. Army for two years. After discharge, I worked for an oil company for eight years and then became […]