Real People Real Recovery ― Overcoming Addiction in Modern America

The current opioid epidemic in America is claiming generations of young Americans struggling to find their way in today’s chaotic, wired society. Between the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, the prison industrial complex, and government failings, addicts and their family members face an uphill battle to get the help they really need to find recovery. But there is a way out! Noted recovery experts Eric Spofford and Piers Kaniuka are providing hope. In this book, the authors discuss their personal journeys from the depths of addiction to finding recovery, as well as their experiences in helping thousands of addicts. Along the way, they’ll discuss the root causes of addiction, which include a lack of human connectivity (dislocation), the prison industrial complex, the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, stress, mental illness, poverty, domestic violence, and much more. In addition, Real People Real Recovery offers advice on how to choose a treatment center and ways to measure rehab success, something not found in any other book.

Key Features:

• Provides useful, unique information on how to choose the right treatment center for yourself or your loved one
• Offers valuable insight from two of the leading voices in the New England recovery community as well as input from their team of experts and valued pioneers in the field
• Thoroughly explains their model of addiction treatment, which focuses on the root causes of addiction and finding happiness in sobriety
• Analyzes and assesses the societal factors that are exacerbating the opioid epidemic in the U.S.
• Provides a blueprint for recovery and a way out through a modernized 12-step-based approach

Piers Kaniuka is the co-founder and Director of Spiritual Life at the Granite Recovery Centers, the largest substance abuse treatment network in New England. Piers met Eric in 2006 when Eric was a hopeless addict on the verge of imprisonment or death. Piers, himself a recovered addict, saw something in Eric and the two connected on a personal level as Piers mentored Eric through his early days of sobriety. They later connected professionally as they had a common belief that recovery was much deeper than sobriety and both knew that the existing model for addiction treatment was outdated and, in many cases, ineffective. They knew that in order for people to achieve real recovery, they needed connection, friendships, love, hope, and purpose. Piers is the former chair of the department of Transpersonal Psychology at Burlington College and is core faculty in the Contemplative Spiritual Direction certificate program at the Alcyon Center in Seal Cove, Maine. He has Master's degrees in Theological Studies (Bangor Theological Seminary) and Counseling Psychology (Antioch University), and is a certified yoga instructor.

Eric Spofford, CEO of Granite Recovery Centers, is an expert in the fields of addiction and recovery. He’s become a leading voice against the use of Suboxone and Methadone, has testified before the United States Senate, and is regularly quoted in the press about a variety of opioid- and addiction-related issues. Originally from Salem, N.H., he started using drugs in his early teens and became a heroin addict by age 15. He was in and out of treatment and had many run-ins with police before he got clean in 2006. Eric became a fixture in the local recovery community and started Granite Recovery Centers in 2008 when he opened The Granite House, an extended care program for men in Derry, NH. He has since opened several more facilities with a total of 280 beds for men and women and has grown Granite Recovery Centers into the largest substance abuse treatment network in New England. Eric has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, WMUR, and The Union Leader, among numerous other media outlets, and hosts the weekly podcast, “Real People. Real Recovery.” He’s also featured in the documentary “The Heroin Effect,” which is about how the opioid epidemic has impacted New Hampshire.