Red Door Recovery

10/03/2026

Red Door programmes come with a two year aftercare support plan. Along with the relevant qualifications, our team also brings lived experience into the mix, to walk with you, out of the hole and into recovery. For info: admin@reddoorrecovery.co.nz or 0800 RED DOOR (733 366).

05/03/2026

Addiction: Making a decision to change your life can be the hardest and scariest decision we can make. To even tell someone you are struggling can be challenging for many.
The life we grow into, in recovery, can be transformative, powerful, rewarding. It all starts with telling someone you’re not okay.

03/03/2026

Don’t ask the person what addiction they have.
Ask the addiction what person it has.
It's about the disconnect that has driven self-medication, very often trauma. We can't just treat the addiction in isolation, the underlying issues need to be addressed in an holistic, evidence-based programme with a two year aftercare commitment.

24/02/2026

Situational Depression. A ‘slump’ caused by life circumstances, unlike clinical depression.
All of us will experience this at some time.
In recovery, life has changed: you are forming new networks and avoiding some people and places. You may become bored with more free time on your hands, not knowing how to fill the gap, and you may hit your slump. This can be a trigger for relapse.
There are many things you can do to get out of the slump, including exercise and making a daily gratitude list.
Practicing gratitude activates the prefrontal cortex—the area responsible for emotional regulation and empathy—which, over time, creates stronger neural pathways for positive emotions. Your brains reward centre will be activated and you will get a boost of dopamine and serotonin, promoting happiness and general wellbeing.
The benefits of practicing gratitude are real, evidence based.
Is it time you checked in with yourself and made some simple changes? Recovery can be challenging at times, but those times will come to pass and the rewards of long-term recovery far out-weigh the challenges. Yeah, recovery!

16/02/2026

In active addiction, there will be a moment in time; a time to stand up, a time to make changes. Seize that moment and work it with everything you have.

14/02/2026

Addiction is not a moral failing. It is not a lack of willpower.

It is a biological feedback loop that has been hijacked.

You are not an "addict" in the stereotypical way most of ‘society’ will judge you. You are a human being with a brain that is doing exactly what it was evolved to do. It is seeking a reward and trying to avoid pain.

It is extremely likely that the need for that reward (eg. Dopamine) is driven by a history of trauma.

Your brain is a survival machine, not a happiness machine. It does not care that your substance of choice is impacting your health, your life, and the lives of people around you.

It only knows that when you use, you get a spike from the feelgood chemicals from your brain’s reward centre.

The substance is just a delivery vehicle; ia very efficient way to blunt the nervous system. After the routine has been established, your brain has mapped ‘relief’ to ‘more drugs.’ It is now a neurological shortcut.

Examples from your brain’s reward centre: While co***ne delivers a dopamine spike of 400 units, Meth’s spike will be 1200 units. 1200! It is off the charts.

And that is why it is hard, very hard, for many people to stop.

Once you understand that your brain is just trying to find a shortcut to peace, the shame starts to evaporate. You stop fighting yourself and start outsmarting the loop.

This isn't about becoming a better person. It is about becoming functional person.
You are not losing a friend. You are evicting a really disruptive squatter.

The silence that follows isn't a void. It is the sound of your nervous system finally getting some rest. Stop waiting for the desire to go away. Start building a life where the desire has nowhere to land.

And then you can enjoy being a better person – do that for you - and then everyone around you, the people most important to you will share the joy and the countless rewards that come, naturally, from living in recovery and working on the ‘why’ – the underlying factors that drove the drug use. If you need help with that, there are people who can walk beside you. True that.

10/02/2026

Yeah, recovery....

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

08/02/2026

Memories: the radio ad that launched Red Door, all those years ago.

02/02/2026

An old radio ad from the late 80s, for drink driving, based on a 'boys night out'. Dated a bit, but still a relevant message as it is still an issue.

31/01/2026

Life in addiction can be full of high-magnitude mayhem.
One wrong step and.........
When you are ready to make changes, there is an easier path.
And there are people who will walk with you.

28/01/2026

HE MOANA PUKEPUKE E EKENGIA E TE WAKA:
This whakataukī is about strength and belief that, in the waka, the choppy seas can be navigated. In 2014 when we started the Pipe Down methamphetamine lobby group, this was our ethos. A year later, when we started Red Door, we took this proverb with us. In addiction, the seas can be stormy and seem imposs ible to navigate. The reality is, when we are ready to make changes, there is a waka waiting for us; people to help us reach the calm waters. True that.

28/01/2026

Memory Lane:
As we get older and turnover the years in recovery from addiction, we find ourselves drawing on our memories.
Sometimes those memories will take us back to our time in active addiction, and that can mean confronting the likes of guilt and shame.
We deal with that, take ownership, make amends if we can, and move on.
The past is history, we can’t change it.
Oh, but the memories from our time in recovery will be wonderful.
How far we we have come, freed from the stress and mayhem, the job we secured, re-connecting with family, and the new friends’ network we have become a part of.
This from a man in his 50’s with a couple of decades in recovery:
“I was sitting in a crowded cafe recently, alone with my morning coffee, just thinking about the person I have become in recovery, learning to live in the present, what I have achieved and, most of all, just how bloody happy I am. Suddenly I realised a had a huge smile across my face. It wouldn’t go away. People around me must have thought I was completely bonkers!”
Recovery.
Is it hard at times, in the early days?
Yes.
Does it get easier?
Totally.
Is it worth it?
Absolutely. 100%. It could be the best thing you ever do for yourself.