Kerry Frost, from Brisbane, has recently commenced facilitating a SMART meeting in Manly West. She has proudly been in control of her addictive behaviour for 22 years, and despite living with only ten percent of her sight (rendering Kerry legally blind), she lives and works as a professional artist. This is her story.
Most of my adult life I have battled addictive behaviours. When I was younger, I experienced an eating disorder, fought sugar and alcohol addictions, and from time to time had problematic behaviour around poker machines.
My husband and I are semi retired, and we travel a great deal. I love to take photos with my iPhone, enlarge these, and create my paintings. Inspired by all the beauty I see, with bright florals, stunning landscapes, serene seascapes, and still life, II create vibrant art works in watercolour, goache, acrylics, and pastel. Lately, I’ve been interested in abstracts and pour paintings.
My artworks have helped raise thousands of dollars for my favourite charities, the Fred Hollows Foundation and Vision Australia. My painting “Two Blue Jugs” was featured on the cover of the 2018 Calendar for Vision Australia. Another painting, “Magic Garden”, is on the cover of the 2019 Vision Australia Diary. In sobriety, being an artist gives me great joy and purpose. It has its challenges, but it is such a positive passion.
I found SMART Recovery whilst googling in 2009. For the first year, I attended Charlie’s US-based online meeting. It was love at first sight for me finding SMART, as I recognised immediately its fresh, modern, helpful approach to recovery from addictive behaviour. I also still attend my 12-step group and find both invaluable and compatible. It is all part of my sobriety and recovery journey.
I would love to see more people come to SMART meetings and just give it a go. What I love about being a SMART Facilitator is the sharing of experience and expertise within a meeting. It can be upsetting when a participant experiences a relapse, but we always hope they come back, and many of them do just that.
Never underestimate the potential in taking any small positive step along this recovery path. About 2001 I walked into my local library, saw an ad for a free class:
“Make your own Christmas Cards”
I took that 2 hour class, walked out with three cards, and it changed my life. Today I am a professional Australian Artist and what an amazing interesting journey it’s been thus far.
I am so very blessed and grateful .
If you’re a SMART facilitator and one of your attendees has the potential to be a peer facilitator, please contact Dan Raffell at draffell@srau.org.au or call us on 02 9373 5100.
