“I feel like I owe my life to being sober and being in recovery. And this was such a wonderful opportunity to be able to give my life back to helping other folks,” Tiffany Hall said, speaking about how she became the executive director of Recover Alaska.
Hall took to the airwaves to share a bit of her personal journey with alcohol and offer a helping hand to people struggling. The interview is part of their month-long ‘Dry January’ campaign, encouraging people to start the new year by trying out sobriety. The initial interview with Hall was followed up with a series of daily spots about alcohol recovery.
Hall said her team recently conducted an exercise for identifying barriers and connecting them to track down the root cause of alcohol consumption struggles. The most common challenge they found was stigma.
“Almost every single barrier that we face, throughout the continuum of this work, had an arrow back to stigma,” Hall said. “Stigma causes so much of these issues. It makes it so challenging
for people to admit that they maybe need help, it makes it difficult for people to then ask for help and it makes it difficult for loved ones to talk to other people about how to deal with this because they’re ashamed or embarrassed.”
Hall shared that it was hearing someone else’s story that made her realize she needed help when she was struggling with addiction. Recover Alaska offers a platform to share testimonies on their website. During the ‘Dry January’ challenge anyone choosing to abstain from alcohol could text a hotline to receive daily encouragement and community support.
At its heart, Recover Alaska is in the business of breaking down barriers to healing, Hall said. The team works to help people access care where they live, reduce the stigma that prevents addicts from admitting they have a problem with alcohol, and celebrate those who choose recovery. The long- term goal is to reduce excessive alcohol use across the state.
Image at top: Listeners heard Tiffany Hall describe ways Alaskans can help one another achieve sobriety and a healthy lifestyle. Photo courtesy of Recover Alaska.
