A message from Stan Grubb, Lifeline Regional Coordinator

What is Lifeline? The Lifeline Project was established in 2013 to reduce stigma related to the disease of addiction and increase community support for policies that provide for treatment and recovery services.

The goals of the Lifeline Project are to increase the availability of evidenced based addiction and recovery programs such as, but not limited to, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous (AA/NA) strategies, to increase the number of policies, practices, and procedures that divert individuals into evidence based addiction, recovery, and relapse programs rather than incarceration, to decrease the number and frequency of relapse incidents experienced by individuals recovering from substance dependency, and to strengthen capacity and infrastructure at the state, region, and community levels in support of substance abuse addiction and recovery services in Tennessee.

New recovery meetings in our region:

  • AA Meeting in Campbell County, Lafollette, have a new location and added extra meeting times
  • Four Double Trouble in Recovery Groups (substance abuse and mental health) established at Peninsula Behavioral Health for their inpatient population
  • Recovery group at Montgomery Village in South Knoxville. Meetings every Monday at 3pm
  • Double Trouble in Recovery Group has been established at Ridgeview Behavioral Health in Oak Ridge for their inpatient population

MYTH: Addiction is a choice.

Most people see an addict as someone who is weak, immoral and has hit rock bottom. This is all false. Certainly in the beginning people choose to use these substances, but not because they want to be addicted. Eventually, a person’s desire for a substance becomes a need. At this point, people lose control over their ability to not use. This lack of choice is the primary element that defines addiction as a disease.

Many people who try drugs once or twice never do so again, but there are others who do become addicts struggling for years to become clean again. Regardless of how an addiction begins and the choices made to reach that point, addiction is a disease. As with other chronic diseases, an addict must seek treatment, get support and make positive lifestyle changes.

For more information contact:
Stan Grubb
Region 2 Lifeline Project Coordinator
865-588-5550 ext.104/ sgrubb@metrodrug.org