Recovery Biography for Mark Ames:

My family has struggled with alcoholism for generations. I come from a privileged background, where social position and financial security were assumed, but this only served to cover up (to a degree) the symptoms of alcoholism. While growing up I was taught social graces and introduced to alcohol in an effort to train me as a social drinker; unfortunately, my use of alcohol has not always led to predictable results. Problems with overdrinking and over drugging began in my teen years and escalated until I sought treatment at age 33. Although I was an appropriate candidate for treatment in my teens, there were not intervention strategies or appropriate treatment options available to me or my family in that era.

Over the course of my 27 years in recovery, I have benefited from the support of literally thousands of people who have also been trying to remain drug and alcohol free. After initial skepticism about the motives behind the acts of selfless service that were everywhere apparent; I came to trust the advice that I try to live my way into right actions and thinking. I have surrounded myself with people living by spiritual principles, practicing meditation, and helping others. Grateful for the resulting peace of mind and freedom from active addiction, I continue to trudge this road to happy destiny.

When I became a member of Narcotics Anonymous in 1983, there was only one meeting in Vermont. The fellowship grew as we formed additional meetings, engaged newcomers and became active in doing service work on the group, area, and regional levels. It was important to understand the benefits of long term recovery and the results of active involvement, and my parallel involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous gave me access to people in recovery for long periods of time, who had been using the twelve steps as a way of life. As the years have progressed, my involvement has increasingly focused on AA and on supporting Vermont’s recovery center movement. Recovery centers to make it possible for people on all paths to recovery to find a warm welcome and opportunities to become engaged and connected with a personally satisfying path toward recovery. Recovery centers are not affiliated with recovery groups renting space for meetings, but they do cooperate with them, referring potential new members.

Recovery is the process of repairing the physical, emotional and spiritual harm caused by slipping into dependence on alcohol and drugs. Guilt, shame, unconscious rationalizations, and losses of spiritual values lingered on long after abstinence began and it is only through relearning (or learning) life skills that recovery has grown as an acceptable alternative to use. Recovery has evolved as a result of trying to live life with empathetic support, role modeling, and openness to new ideas. My family dynamics, my relationships and my involvement in the community and world at large have profoundly changed for the better, making me truly grateful to have found recovery.

Community Involvement

I currently coordinate the Vermont Recovery Center Network (VRN). After 20 years of working for Vermont’s State Addiction Agency, I took a job supporting the development of the nine Recovery Centers I had helped to create during the part of my career which was devoted to doing program development, creating prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery programs that helped to address substance abuse.

When Vermont’s policy makers became aware that treating addictions with an acute care treatment model alone wasn’t enough, they supported the development of our recovery centers. We are working to build and strengthen these community based nonprofit organizations which are providing safe, substance-free environments, recovery supports, social and educational opportunities, and fellowship opportunities for anyone actively interested in recovery. We have been developing easily delivered recovery supports, which are appropriate for people on all paths to recovery. Refining our training approaches for recovery center staff and volunteers has significantly improved their skills and abilities in working with visitors. Sometimes this involves supporting people on paths toward 12 step recovery approaches and at other times we encourage visitors and support them to define and follow other recovery paths, with which they are more comfortable. These welcoming, engaging and supportive services help visitors find, maintain and when necessary, reinitiate recovery.

Acknowledging that addictive disease is chronic, progressive and fatal, just like asthma, diabetes, coronary disease and other mental illness is the first step. We are working to establish a Recovery Systems of Care, working to assure appropriate support for people suffering from addictive disease – throughout their lifetimes. I’m a founder of and still active in the advocacy organization, Friends of Recovery – Vermont. As a regular participant at the Governor’s Alcohol and Drug Advisory Council, I have contact with others who work in all branches of government and in providing addictions services. As the Treasurer of the Vermont Drug and Alcohol Coalition, I am an active participant in public awareness efforts. This year we encouraged the legislature to consider the implications of youth access to alcohol and discussed the potential impact of reducing the drinking age. I take pride in my past role of helping to form many of Vermont’s original prevention coalitions. The synergistic effect from collaborations between prevention coalitions and the recovery centers has been growing.

Although I am known in many different communities throughout Vermont as a strong advocate for substance abuse services, addiction recovery, and recovery supports, the changes we have been working to bring about will only become a reality when others involved in prevention, intervention, treatment, recovery, and community at large realize that their voices need to be heard. We need a large chorus, not a collection of soloists.