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Dealing in Hope!

by | Sep 28, 2023 | Blog, Creating & Using Your WRAP, Key Concepts, Mental Health, Trauma, Wellbeing, Wellness Toolbox, Wellness, Recovery & Lifestyle Topics

By Trenda Hedges, Advanced Level WRAP Facilitator

I believe wholeheartedly in HOPE and NO LIMITS to recovery!

I didn’t always believe this. It seemed I was born into limits. I was limited by poverty, by substance use, and by the stigma that came from living in a very small town in Illinois where everyone knew the things I wanted to keep secret.

Growing up, and even into adulthood, I saw and experienced a multitude of things that I later learned were traumatic events. The way I experienced those events had profound effects on me that contributed to feelings of discomfort, diagnoses, a plethora of medications, suicide attempts, hospitalizations, and drug use. I felt limited by the loss of loved ones, family incarceration, and unemployment. Doctors told me that I would never work again. I felt hopeless.

Despite the things that attempted to limit my recovery and steal my hope, I did go back to work! I saw a job announcement for people with lived experience in the areas of mental health and substance use challenges. And I thought, “Wow! People get paid for that? Sign me up!” It was through this job that I was introduced to WRAP.

Even though I had been in recovery for a couple of years, I was still searching for something that would help me take charge of my life—a life that seemed so tragically out of control. I needed the hope that WRAP provided.

I started applying WRAP and making it a way of life, adapting it to different situations and supporting others with their WRAPs. Suddenly, I had hope and there were no limits to my wellness and recovery.

I became a WRAP Facilitator in 2017. Since then, I’ve facilitated WRAP orientations and seminars for multiple companies, organizations, and justice and behavioral health systems, along with presenting WRAP at conferences and colleges. I serve on the WRAP Refresher workgroup and steering committee in Illinois. And recently, I was trained as an Advanced Level WRAP Facilitator.

WRAP took the limits off and turned my recovery into something I never could have imagined. WRAP changed me! I went from being hopeless to being a HOPE DEALER!

If you’d like to share your wellness recovery story with others in our community, please send it in. Check out the Writer Guidelines. And don’t worry if writing isn’t your strength—we have writers/editors here to help polish your submission.

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