Recovery is the truth
you tell yourself.

Jenny Baker

RECOVERY

/rɪˈkʌv(ə)ri/
noun - a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.

SHAME

/ʃeɪm/
noun - a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour.

Welcome to a world freed from shame

Recovery From Shame is a doorway into a world of information that brings relevance and excitement to the universal topic of shame. Shame from addiction, incarceration, sexual abuse, domestic abuse or from growing up around any of it. Or shaming from society for not fitting into the mold due to handicaps, body shapes, skin tones, hair color, hair shapes, sexual preference, gender, poverty or any other affliction that somebody else told you was less then. Or simply put, that you should be ashamed of.

Our mission is to provide insight, guidance and inspiration. And to collect relevant material within various fields of trauma in a free space where people can connect. Without the shame. With bold pride and dignity.

Johann Hari said it beautifully, clearly and honestly in his epic TED talk that is my ever shining mantra. The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection. Go in, listen for the first time. Or listen again. Or use it as a meditation. Let his love song for all of us, the addicts and the co-dependents, lead the way for this community. Let’s join the Rat Park and choose sex, play & connection. And water the majority of the time…

In The Recovery From Shame community we shift the mindset of recovery from shameful to fun, hip and relevant. Once you start looking around you see that many people have opened up about their struggles, about their addictions or their lives in the shadow of chaos or marginalization. It doesn’t have to be shameful, just because society made you feel that way. It could, perhaps, be our saving grace as the strong ones decided that life is worth living. Once we see more of us out there in the open, we become the norm, not the pity.

And as we know, once it gets dark enough you get to see the stars.

Once you belong, you matter.

Join our world freed from shame

This website was created because I have lived with shame. Recovery has become my ground zero. My husband wants to talk about films. That is his ground zero. But I just want to talk about how to recover from whatever hurts deep down inside of you. That which used to hurt deep down inside of me too. I talked to myself about it all the time. And then I got brave enough to talk to other people about it. And now it only hurts a little. And when it does and I cry, I know I am crying because it mattered. It all does.

When it was really dark for me, movies, books and songs got me through. I gathered them here in this space as a celebration of all that we have been through and overcome, as a people. There is light out there. And once we do it together, it’s a lot easier. I’m not sure how or where this page is heading. I hope we’ll get to meet and do great things together. That we’ll relate to each other because we are open with our recovery and we know that once you have recovered your soul, you both want to, can and will do extraordinary things.

This page celebrates life, just like Sinead O’Connor’s Take Me to Church, in which she celebrates her own recovery. Which I have adopted as my personal anthem... I too, have done so many bad things it hurts. I longed for the spiritual community that picks up where the church once was. A place to be forgiven, healed and find support from. This is the start of that. Cheers to that and to you and to the great things we can do together.

Take care,
Jenny

Take me to church by Sinead O’Connor

Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong. TED talk by Johann Hari.