Substance Use Issues - extra listings
If you're navigating substance use challenges, remember you're not alone - support, understanding, and hope are always available, with compassionate professionals ready to help you take positive steps towards healing and wellness.
Extra Listings here…
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What is Addictive Eaters Anonymous?
Addictive Eaters Anonymous (AEA) is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from addictive eating.
AEA has members who have suffered from anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. Many have been underweight, overweight or obese; others were people of average weight yet suffered with an obsession with food. Members may have used exercise and other substances to try and control their weight. Before coming to AEA, members found that they were powerless over food, and unable to stop the food obsession.AEA is not a diet or weight loss organisation. AEA members follow a Twelve Step programme, based on that of Alcoholics Anonymous. Through working the Steps, members find a Higher Power and freedom from the obsession with food. Members share their experience with newcomers of how they have found sobriety. Sobriety in AEA is freedom from addictive eating and all mind-altering substances.
Addictive eating and eating addictively are terms used in Addictive Eaters Anonymous to describe obsessive or compulsive food behaviour, including, but not limited to, overeating, binge eating, undereating, starving, purging, compulsive exercise, the use of drugs to control weight, obsessive thoughts about food and obsession with body image or weight control.
AEA is not affiliated with any other organisation. AEA meetings are open to anyone. There is no cost to attend.
Anyone with a desire to stop eating addictively can become an AEA member. Everyone is welcome in AEA, including family or friends of anyone who suffers from anorexia, bulimia, obesity or other forms of addictive eating. AEA also welcomes healthcare professionals and members of other Twelve Step recovery fellowships.
AEA members, known as sponsors, are available to guide newcomers, or sponsees, through the Twelve Steps. An AEA member’s primary purpose is to stay sober and help other addictive eaters to achieve sobriety.AEA was established in Christchurch, New Zealand by a group of men and women, who have been recovering from addictive eating for many years through the Twelve Step recovery programme. There are now members in recovery, as well as AEA meetings, throughout the world.
We have found a solution in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, as developed in Alcoholics Anonymous. We focus on the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous as our basic text, and the message of sobriety it carries. -
KIA ORA AND WELCOME TO AL-ANON FAMILY GROUPS
If you are new, we welcome you and hope that you will find here the help and support that we have found. Whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not, Al-Anon offers hope and recovery to all people affected by the alcoholism of a loved one or friend.
Al-Anon has one purpose: to help families of alcoholics. We do this by practising The Twelve Steps, by welcoming and giving comfort to families of alcoholics, and by giving understanding and encouragement to the alcoholic. We believe that alcoholism is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery.
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Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.
The book Alcoholics Anonymous, the basic text of A.A., says:
“We alcoholics are men and women who lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals – usually brief – were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible de-moralisation.”
If the above describes you, you think you have a problem with alcohol, or you know someone who does, here you will find: a phone number to call and talk to someone who understands, the address of an A.A. meeting near you, details on how to order a book or pamphlet about A.A. and alcoholism, stories of alcoholics who have come to A.A. and much more…
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About us
Awareness is a network of people who have used mental health or addictions services, or identify with experiencing mental illness, substance use issues or distress. Our aim as a group is to help make mental health services and wider society better for people with experience of distress. We meet monthly as a group, and hold smaller, project group meetings to work on specific projects. Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month from 12.30pm and are a welcoming space open to anyone who identifies with having personal experience of mental illness or addictions.
Get involved
To become involved in Awareness, people are welcome to join the network and, as members, can be notified of upcoming meetings, projects, forums, events and opportunities to provide feedback from a consumer point of view to improve services. People who do not identify with having personal experience of mental illness or addictions, but who would like to support the network in what we do, are welcome to become Friends of Awareness. Family members, support workers and clinical staff can all become Friends of Awareness, as can organisations. If you would like to become a member or a friend please contact us. It is free to join Awareness and be involved.
Mission Statement
To ensure effective mental health and addictions services in Canterbury by supporting individuals to make a difference, and becoming a collective voice for change.Issues we are actively addressing include
• Ensuring mental health is on the political agenda during elections
• Advocating for peer support alternatives to crisis and hospital services
• Seclusion Reduction and Elimination Resource ‘Opening Doors’
• Issues impacting young people
• Providing a consumer voice on DHB and Ministry of Health submissions
• Promoting and supporting research by people with lived experience
• Co-design and consumer consultancy
• Up-skilling our members by running forums, skills workshops and funding training attendance -
We are people who having learned from our own experience of mental illness or addictions now provide services and support to assist others as they seek to improve their quality of life.
We do this purposefully by working from our own lived experience and using the values of our organisation. How we got here is our history arising from support groups that became new organisations and on through our experience of earthquakes and changes of addresses and new people joining us.
Our Values
MHAPS services and support are provided within a framework of values that have been developed by our board, staff and clients. You can read more about what these values represent here:
We value :
Empathy
Respect
Best practice
Mutuality
Honesty / Transparency
Accountability
Integrity/ Trust
Our Purpose
We work with a purpose by:
Providing a wide variety of peer led and peer informed services from which a person can choose options that feel comfortable to them.
Offering information, education and referrals to other services to families/whanau to enable them to better support those close to them who experience mental distress or addictions.
Working collaboratively with mental health and addiction service users to provide improved services and support for people who experience mental distress or addictions.
Encouraging and supporting people to live well in the presence or absence of their symptoms by facilitating their recovery within their chosen community.
Our Lived Experience
Our personal lived experience as people with our own history of mental health, alcohol or addictions issues give us great insights when working to help others. You can be confident that whatever you bring, someone here has had a similar journey that helps them to relate to you.
We find that our own personal lived experience and our willingness to share it, when that is appropriate, enables us to readily connect with those we are working with.
People feel ‘heard’ and often for the first time. Mutual lived experience helps build relationship and relationships help to make our services and support more accessible.
The knowledge that you are far from being alone in what you experience, and that, in fact, your own journey may have meaning in helping others can help to bring new meaning into your life.
Our People
Everyone who works at MHAPS and many of our Trust Board has lived experience of mental distress, mental illness and/or substance addictions and of recovery.
Our staff members have a wealth of knowledge, life experience and empathy, all of which supports their work. We have in our own way travelled a similar journey as our peer clients and so can offer a mutual experience and empathy to those who may be struggling with their own distress.
Our work with people can range from anxiety, depression, bipolar and addiction, to struggles as a sole parent with mental health issues, leaving inpatient or residential care, stigma and discrimination issues, particularly in employment, and many other areas of distress and fear.
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What is OA?
Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively.
There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organisation, political movement, ideology or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues.
Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive overeating and to carry the message of recovery to those who still suffer.
OA welcomes anyone who has a problem with eating, weight, or food behaviours, such as compulsive overeaters, emotional eaters, compulsive exercisers, anorexics and bulimics.
We have face to face OA meetings in Christchurch, Dunedin, and Nelson – and many on Zoom
To find a meeting in the South Island, go to Meetings. Many are also on Zoom. Meetings are open to anyone interested, including whanau, friends and support people, medical students and health professionals.
For many more meetings online, hosted from all over the world, go to oa.org.
For more information on Overeaters Anonymous and how it works, go to About OA.
To find out more about recovery from compulsive overeating, go to OA Program.
We encourage you to attend an Overeaters Anonymous meeting near you to meet others who are working the program, and hear how it could work for you.
Do you have a problem with food?
Do you eat when you’re not hungry?
Does food drive you crazy?
Do you binge, purge or skip meals to lose weight?
Do you feel guilty after you have eaten?
Do you eat when you are tired, sad, angry or stressed?
Is your weight affecting your life?
Do you eat to take your pain away?
Do you have secret binges or hide food?
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Talk Time Online offers free educational online groups for people to start a kōrero about mental wellbeing and learn helpful tips. Groups give people the opportunity to participate or remain anonymous if they choose.
Rainbow Diversity and How to Be a Supportive Ally
Interactive Educational Group for Rainbow Allies. Increase your understanding of rainbow diversity and learn ways to promote healthy, inclusive environments for rainbow people in Aotearoa through interactive discussions. Each week will explore a new topic, including sexual orientation and attraction, gender minorities, intersex and VSC people, supporting rainbow relationships and creating safe spaces for rainbow people.
Alcohol and Other Drug Online Groups
Groups to assist your wellbeing and AOD recovery journey. We offer a range of alcohol and other drug (AOD) discussion groups that provide an online platform for participants to develop strategies and knowledge around harm reduction, relapse prevention, wellbeing and more. Participants can choose to join in as much as they feel comfortable or to remain anonymous.
Connecting Through Motherhood
Weekly educational discussion group for new mums. Connect with other mums and bubs for informal discussions guided by a psychologist. This six-week online series will explore topics that will help support you as you navigate motherhood. This group is open to mothers of babies under two years old.
Discussion will cover topics such as emotional regulation, mental load, the perfect mother myth and more.
Habits and Hints for Wellbeing
Weekly group series to develop skills to support mental health. This interactive six-week group offers discussion and tips on mental wellbeing strategies, facilitated by an experienced mental health professional. Each week focuses on a new topic including common stresssors, the impact of thoughts, assertiveness, and being prepared for setbacks. Choose which topics you'd like to attend or join the whole series.
Tools for Managing Anxiety
Interactive group to learn and share tips to help with anxiety. Join this supportive discussion group to learn and share information and strategies for coping with anxiety, facilitated by an expert mental health professional. This is a five-week series and participants can choose which sessions they would like to attend.
Topics include challenging anxious thoughts, healthy coping strategies and cognitive restructuring.
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Nau Mai Haere Mai
The Salvation Army Bridge provides a range of effective support services that help reduce the harmful effects of alcohol and other drugs in people’s lives.
We provide tāngata whaiora (people seeking wellness) and their whānau (family) with a safe place to belong where personal choice is encouraged and supported. We provide recovery information and practical tools communicated in meaningful ways which are culturally appropriate that supports healthy wellbeing.
Bridge services are supported by a range of professional kaimahi (staff) who bring a combination of clinical knowledge, cultural worldviews, and lived experience who work with our tāngata and whānau to provide a variety of wrap-around support services.
The University of Otago study Testing the Bridge (2015) found that the Bridge services provided evidence-based, world-class treatment and continuing care for people affected by their harmful use of alcohol or other drugs (Testing the Bridge 2015).
Why choose the Bridge?
The Bridge is recovery-focused using a range of evidence-based approaches to reduce the physical, physiological and social harm that results from the use of alcohol and/or other drugs. We are also committed to supporting people who experience co-existing mental health challenges and take a kaupapa whānau (working with other services) approach in working together to support the well-being of our tāngata whaiora.
