So it's National Recovery Month, but what does "recovery" really mean?
I'll defer to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA says recovery is:
"A process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential"
I like it, with a couple of exceptions. First, it doesn't put recovery in an addiction context. That's not really something to blame SAMHSA for, that's just because Alcoholisnt's scope is narrower than SAMHSA's—and I want to talk about recovery in an alcoholism context. SAMHSA is trying to cover all the mental health bases. One interesting thing to note is that their definition doesn't speak to the absence of disorder symptoms. It's about changing and improving, not eliminating or curing. So, in an alcoholism—or alcohol use disorder (AUD)—context, recovery isn't equated with sobriety. Sobriety is a physical state—a lack of intoxication. Recovery is a process. To me, that's an important difference.
A lack of sobriety does not mean an absence of recovery. I've been in recovery since I decided over 5 years ago that my relationship with alcohol needed to change dramatically. I went to rehab. I called myself an alcoholic (even if maybe I didn't believe it at first). I don't think I was committed to sobriety at that point, but I was committed to recovery. The path from there has been far from linear. There have been wonderful periods of sobriety and frightening drinking binges. But even in the darkest depths of the ugliest relapse, I didn't want to be there. I was still committed to recovering, I was just unable to show progress at that point.
Many will say "relapse isn't part of recovery." I disagree. Relapse is obviously antithetical to sobriety, but it can be part of recovery. Relapse doesn't have to be part of recovery, but it commonly and it's not worthy of shame or exclusion. Recovery is not a club that you're allowed into if you blow 0.00 and excluded from when you can't.
SAMHSA provides this graphical representation of recovery (and here's a great document with supporting explanations):
Again, not addiction specific, but there are some great things here. Elements that hit close to home for me:
Many Pathways. There's no one-size-fits-all solution to AUD. Everyone knows about 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). AA isn't always the answer. It has been for many and that's great. For others, as that other blog post describes, it just doesn't make sense. I suggest that people be willing to try everything in recovery, but ultimately choose to focus on only those things they truly believe are helpful.
Holistic. Again. Recovery isn't merely sobriety. It's physical health. It's connection and community. It's spirituality. It's safety and security. Simply not drinking is not enough. One must tackle multiple elements from multiple directions.
Hope. Optimism is powerful. Relapse isn't antithetical to recovery, but giving up is. Hope doesn't mean we expect perfection and bliss to be out there, but that we trust that recovery leads us to good places (while recognizing it will never eliminate the bad ones—there's too much out there we don't control).
Strengths/Responsibility. Responsibility can be a tricky one. Some shy away from describing alcoholism as a disease or disorder, thinking that it's some sort of "excuse" for bad behavior. Recognizing it as such does nothing of the sort though. And it doesn't absolve someone from taking responsibility for the actions of recovery any more than getting cancer absolves someone from finding a good oncologist and the appropriate treatment plan. Recognizing strengths goes hand-in-hand with the optimism and hope described above. We all have strengths. Finding them, believing in them, and figuring out how to capitalize on them in recovery is critical.
So that's a short take on what recovery means to me.
I hope you'll consider helping Alcoholisnt help others strengthen their recovery by checking out our Recovery Month Startup Booster fundraising campaign.
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