September is National Recovery Month. We’ll be blogging about some of the upcoming events in Maine next week. (Sidenote: If you are involved with a recovery month event in Maine, please email us the details of your event to be included.)

As the website states:

Recovery Month promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for mental and substance use disorders, celebrates people in recovery, lauds the contributions of treatment and service providers, and promotes the message that recovery in all its forms is possible. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover.

To that end, we’d like to use this blog to help spread the word of recovery during Recovery Month. While we certainly have been doing our part, having started this blog in 2007, there is still much to be done in the area of promoting the benefits of recovery. Since we use a relational model at Crossroads – meaning we help women and men understand and build healthy relationships in their lives while in treatment for substance abuse and/or mental health struggles – we want to encourage the community aspect of this blog.

We want to hear your stories of recovery. How did you get there? What did it take? What advice would you offer to those struggling right now? What helped you remember who you wanted to be?

We’re sending out an open invitation to send us your story of recovery from a substance abuse and/or mental health disorder. These disorders affect us all, and we need to talk about them. You’re not alone.

We will share the stories throughout the month of September on this blog.

Here are some specifics:

Keep your story to approximately 500 words or less
Send along stories; do not send promotions for businesses or recovery-oriented facilities
Please include an image to use with the post, if possible
You are welcome to remain anonymous in the post (please indicate that you want to remain anonymous in your email and please do not not use any identifying information in your post)
You are also welcome to include a short, 2-3 sentence bio that includes a link to a blog or website
All submitted stories are subject to editing and approval (i.e., Submitting a story does not guarantee we will post it.)
Email your story to blog@staging.crossroadsme.org before September 15, 2012 (The earlier the better, since these will run throughout the month of September.)