STAND, Inc.

Recovery doesn't always look like a milestone chip.

Sometimes it looks like sleeping through the night.

Sometimes it looks like making plans with friends and actually showing up.

Sometimes it looks like trusting yourself again, little by little.

Sometimes it looks like the people who love you finally breathing easier.

Recovery isn't one thing. It's hundreds of small moments that slowly add up to a life that feels like yours again.

What does recovery mean to you?

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone, your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that will empower all to engage in healthy productive lifestyles.

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Start your day with intention, not pressure. 🧘

Join us each morning for Morning Reflection at The DOOR, STAND’s Addiction Recovery Support Center, a daily virtual space to pause, reset, and reconnect with yourself and others walking their own path of growth and recovery.

Led by Certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialists (CARES), these sessions focus on something powerful:

👉 What’s right with you.

Not what’s broken. Not what needs fixing. But your strengths, your resilience, and your potential. Because how you start your morning matters.

🕘 Monday – Friday | 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM

📲 Join virtually here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85233161324?pwd=y0r61EJY0yNqqGnLFcpT137iBRPUNv.1

Meeting ID: 852 3316 1324
Passcode: 726136

Georgia Recovers! .org

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone, your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that will empower all to engage in healthy productive lifestyles.

A lot of people struggling with addiction are fighting two battles at the same time:

The addiction itself, and the voice inside that says:
“You’ll never change.”
“You ruin everything.”
“You’ve gone too far.”
“No one would understand.”

Over time, shame can start to feel like truth.

But recovery is not just about stopping a behavior. It is also about rebuilding the relationship you have with yourself.

Research shows chronic shame increases stress, isolation, and relapse risk. Compassion, safe connection, and peer support help interrupt that cycle.

At Stand Inc., healing starts with being seen, understood, and supported without judgment.

The goal is not perfection.
The goal is helping people breathe again.

Recover with STAND
www.standinc.com
(404) 288-4668

Addiction convinces people they are alone.

It says:
“No one could possibly understand this.”
“If people knew the truth, they would leave.”
“You have to fix yourself before you deserve connection.”

But relational neuroscience tells a different story.

Research shows that isolation increases stress hormones like cortisol and keeps the nervous system in survival mode, while safe human connection and “co-regulation” help the brain begin to stabilize, soften, and heal.

Recovery is not only about stopping a behavior.
It is also about rebuilding connection.

That is why peer support matters so deeply at STAND Inc.

Sometimes the most healing words a person can hear are not:
“Here’s what you should do.”

Sometimes they are:
“Me too.”
“I’ve been there.”
“You are not too far gone.”
“You do not have to carry this alone anymore.”

When people enter recovery surrounded by others who truly understand the weight they’ve been carrying, shame begins to lose its grip.

Addiction thrives in isolation.
Healing grows in community.

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone, your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that empower all to engage in healthy productive lifestyles.

IT DOESN’T ALWAYS LOOK THE SAME.

Sometimes people reach for:
• alcohol
• food
• gambling
• shopping
• substances
• relationships
• po*******hy
• endless scrolling

Not because they are “bad” or “weak.”

But because the nervous system is trying to find relief.

When emotional pain, loneliness, stress, trauma, shame, or overwhelm become too heavy, the brain naturally looks for something that creates escape, comfort, numbness, control, or temporary relief.

The behavior may look different.
The pain underneath is often deeply similar.

At STAND Inc., we believe recovery starts by asking:
“What happened to you?”
not
“What is wrong with you?”

Healing does not have one specific look.
Neither does addiction.

If you are tired of carrying it alone, support is here.

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone, your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

🇺🇸 This Memorial Day, we honor the brave souls who sacrificed everything for our freedom.

As we gather with family and friends, enjoy barbecues, parades, and sunshine, may we also remember the importance of compassion, connection, and supporting those who are silently struggling.

At STAND Inc., we believe healing happens when people feel seen, supported, and never alone.

Today we remember the heroes who served our country, and we continue standing beside those fighting battles of their own every day.

Remembering the heroes today and always. ❤️

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

“Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone, your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that will empower all to engage in healthy productive lifestyles.

.4086

::

The Root of the Response: ACEs & the Biology of Addiction 🧬🧠

Beyond Willpower:
Why do some individuals face a higher risk of substance use disorder? The answer often lies in the ACE Score (Adverse Childhood Experiences). A landmark study by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente revealed that as a person’s ACE score increases, so does their risk for clinical addiction. This isn’t a coincidence—it’s a biological consequence.

The Physiology of "Toxic Stress":
When a child experiences chronic adversity without a buffering relationship, their body produces a constant stream of "toxic stress" hormones.

The Reward System: This stress can "desensitize" the brain’s dopamine receptors. Substances are often used to artificially reach a baseline level of dopamine that the brain can no longer produce on its own.

The Prefrontal Cortex: Chronic stress can weaken the area of the brain responsible for impulse control and long-term planning, making "just saying no" a physiological battle rather than a simple choice.

The Self-Medication Hypothesis: For many, addiction is a survival mechanism—an attempt to regulate a nervous system that has been stuck in "fight or flight" since childhood.

The Path to Healing:
Understanding ACEs doesn't mean a high score is a life sentence. It means that recovery infrastructure must be trauma-informed. At Stand Inc., we believe that healing the nervous system through stable housing, peer support, and clinical care is the key to breaking the cycle.

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone - your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that will empower all to engage in healthy productive lifestyles.

Eating disorders are often deeply misunderstood.

Many people still assume they are simply about appearance, dieting, or “wanting attention.” In reality, eating disorders are complex mental and physical health conditions influenced by biology, trauma, anxiety, stress, genetics, and nervous system regulation.

They affect people of all body sizes, genders, races, and ages, and many individuals struggle silently because they do not “look” sick enough to others.

Recovery is possible, but recovery requires more than shame, pressure, or surface-level advice. It requires compassionate, trauma-informed support systems that help people heal physically, emotionally, and neurologically.

When we move beyond judgment and begin understanding the deeper roots of these struggles, we create more space for connection, treatment, and hope.

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction, mental health struggles, or eating disorders. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone - your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that empower people to engage in healthy, productive lifestyles.

RECOVERY DOESN’T START AT RELEASE. IT STARTS WITH SUPPORT.

For many individuals leaving incarceration, the first 72 hours are some of the most vulnerable moments in the recovery journey. Reentry is not simply about opening a gate. It is about whether someone is returning to isolation, instability, and untreated addiction, or to structure, support, and a real pathway forward.

Research consistently shows that people leaving incarceration face an extremely elevated risk of overdose, especially when treatment, housing, and coordinated care are missing.

Recovery infrastructure matters.

That means:
• Addiction treatment that begins inside and continues outside
• Warm handoffs instead of disconnected releases
• Peer support from people with lived experience
• Recovery-focused housing and safe environments
• Coordinated care that treats recovery as long-term support, not a one-time event

True public safety is not built through punishment alone. It is built through connection, continuity, dignity, and recovery.

At STAND Inc., we believe reentry should be a bridge to healing, not a return to survival mode.

Georgia Recovers! The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

Please reach out if you, a friend or a loved one is suffering from addiction. To find support, please visit www.standinc.com or call us at (404) 288-4668.

Start your recovery journey with us today! You are not alone - your journey is our journey ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ 🎯

STAND provides solutions for abuse disorders through evidence-based training, education, and interventions that will empower all to engage in healthy productive lifestyles.

YOUR SOBER WEEKEND SUPPORT KIT ✨

Weekends can feel freeing, exciting, overwhelming, lonely, healing, or all of the above at once. Recovery isn’t just about avoiding old habits, it’s about building new rhythms that help you feel grounded, connected, and supported.

A few small things can make a big difference:
✔ Planning ahead instead of winging it
✔ Taking five quiet minutes to regulate your nervous system
✔ Reaching out before stress becomes isolation

You do not have to navigate recovery alone. Sometimes strength looks like slowing down, checking in, and letting someone walk beside you. 💛

STAND Inc. is a peer-led recovery community helping individuals and families move from surviving to thriving through connection, support, education, and hope.

Georgia Recovers!
The Georgia Association for Addiction Professionals Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Georgia Council for Recovery

📞 (404) 288-4668
🌐 https://ow.ly/ps8a50YVlXw