lotr.. frodo goes through many hardships that mirror our own recovery journeys, this page will highlight the similarities in frodos path to destroying the ring.

one could argue that the one ring is a metaphor for depression or trauma. the longer frodo has the ring, the more it affects his health. this mirrors real life as the longer you leave trauma untreated, the more of an affect it will have on you.

in this group, we talked of having someone who can "hold onto our hope" for when we feel we have none. in lord of the rings, samwise is this person. no matter much frodo suffers, samwise is there for him. if frodo did not have the fellowship or samwise, he would not have made it to mordor.

another way we can deal with our hardships and emotions is to use "tools" such as dbt skills. in lord of the rings, frodo is given a few items that are used to save his life and get out of tricky situations. these include the sword, sting, given to him by bilbo after his first leg of the journey, which mirrors the first set of skills you can learn by starting on your recovery path.

sting is known for glowing blue when orcs are near, and a helpful part of starting on the recovery journey is to know your own warning signs and triggers, as everything has a cause (but not a reason) and its important to undestand this and build up from this, to then be able to regulate emotions and reactions.

another tool used is the phial of galadriel, a gift to frodo from galadriel to use continuing along his journey. this could also be seen as hope, or just as light within the darkness. at first, sam reminds frodo of it to use to fight off shelob, who could be seen as one of the stepbacks you see within recovery, such as relapse.

sam reminding frodo to use it could be seen as someone who is involved in your recovery reminding you to use the skills you have learnt, or also be seen as someone giving encouragement when you are experiencing setbacks within your journey.

in conclusion lotr is a movie about hope, strength and working together. all of these can be applied to our own recovery paths and we too can create our own followship within ourselves and those around us.

me writing this

us in group

me when i charge into my recovery journey..... for frodo