Creativity — making art — is another way to find that aliveness and spiritual connection often sought through drugs and alcohol. The creative process can be transformative for people with addiction. Recovery that consists of meetings, step work, and an unfulfilling job makes for a very black-and-white life — at least for me it did.… Continue reading Artists in Recovery Find Their Fix in "The Creative High"
Tag: creativity
Language Sideways: The Poetry of Addiction
In what ways do current poems of addiction represent the minds of addicts in the throes of active disease as well as after the process of recovery’s begun? Something poet Sam Sax said in an interview for The Fix has me thinking about poetry and addiction. “Poetry for me,” he told writer Christian Arthur, “is… Continue reading Language Sideways: The Poetry of Addiction
Eddie Pepitone: From Falling Down Drunk to Sober Stand Up
Comedy is totally addictive! It hits the part of the brain that drugs do. The love me love me I’m home I’m home part (that is when it goes well). You feel exhilarated because you are the center of attention. I was a few months out of my second rehab facility when a friend and… Continue reading Eddie Pepitone: From Falling Down Drunk to Sober Stand Up
So You Want to Write About Addicts
At its best, addict lit satiates our quintessential human yearning for stories that may lead to salvation. We want warm fuzzies. We want sweet, sweet, redemption. We started each morning of residential treatment with burned muffins, a house meeting, and introductions. “My name is Tom and I’m a junkie here on vacation. My goal today… Continue reading So You Want to Write About Addicts
Lineages of Addiction: Interview with torrin a. greathouse, a Trans Poet in Recovery
“I always compare myself now to a night when I was drinking and I looked in the mirror. I saw a lie, wearing a suit and full beard, and…I tried to kill myself.” A point on a map is the product of two dimensions, the x and the y, or longitude and latitude. For example,… Continue reading Lineages of Addiction: Interview with torrin a. greathouse, a Trans Poet in Recovery