We Recover Loudly – Personal Recovery and Mental Health Stories · Shell Righini

S3 Episode 011 Special Edition Ruth Tansey: Recovering Loudly … Homelessness, Healing & Finding Purpose

·27 min

We Recover Loudly Special Edition features Shell interviewing Ruth Tansey, who manages Essex Recovery Foundation. Ruth shares her recovery journey beginning with childhood in a Buckinghamshire village where she was the only mixed-race child in an all-white, predominantly white population, with a gypsy stepfather. Athletic excellence became her identity anchor and peer acceptance gateway. Home life included violence from her stepfather, with her mother's protective attempts resulting in her own beatings. Ruth's brother was favored despite also being alcoholic. Ruth developed her own drinking and drug use, connecting this later to childhood trauma only during long-term recovery. She entered recovery in early 2021 via online meetings (COVID restrictions) and has been involved five years. Shell and Ruth discuss community as recovery's foundation—contrasting shared identity discovery in recovery rooms with pre-recovery isolation. Ruth emphasizes service integration (12-step programs, professional support, community programs) as ongoing lifestyle, not emergency intervention. Key insight: recovery community becomes 'new addiction' in positive sense—a replacement for drugs/alcohol through belonging. Ruth has stayed connected with Essex Recovery Foundation from its founding meeting through employment.

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