What does it mean to be “in addiction recovery”?

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What does it mean to be "in addiction recovery"?

So what, exactly, is addiction recovery? That’s a tough one. Recovery means different things to different people, depending on what level of sobriety each of us has reached. Someone that quit drinking or using drugs three weeks go is just beginning to view life with a new perspective, while someone with 27 years in recovery has moved way beyond that point. Or, should have, at least. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Addiction recovery is a process. Becoming an addict doesn’t happen overnight, and neither does recovery. Many would say addiction is an incurable disease and that every addict must forever remain in a state of recovery. Others disagree and claim to have made a full recovery and are no longer an addict. While the 12 Steps are the most popular method, many addicts have recovered using alternative approaches, such as psychotherapy, holistic healing, or even healed themselves using sheer willpower. The truth is, people vary, and there is no one-size-fits-all method of addiction recovery. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else.
There in, lies the confusion. So, how do we define recovery? Sometimes, it’s easier to define what something is by first eliminating what it is not.

Recovery is NOT

  • Criticizing another’s path to sobriety
  • Claiming to be an expert about recovery, and which approach works best
  • Preaching from the recovery pulpit
  • Spreading resentment, anger and hate
  • Beating one another over the head with our own beliefs and opinions
  • Talking the talk without walking the walk

Recovery IS

  • Acceptance of our own flaws and weaknesses, as well as those of others
  • Open-mindedness to views different from our own
  • Humility – one of the greatest gifts we can receive as recovering addicts, along with learning to appreciate the true meaning of words like gratitude, serenity, inner peace, and forgiveness
  • Moving forward in a positive direction, while helping others do the same
  • Respect – for ourselves and for others
One thing most addicts in recovery can agree with is that addiction is a cold, lonely pit of darkness, at least for those that have hit bottom. Rather than climbing over one another to escape the pit, we ought to join hands and help pull one another to safety. That is the true meaning of recovery.

Phases Of Recovery

Here are phases of recovery, milestones to mark your progress. Addiction recovery can be thought of as moving through these five phases:

This is the key starting point. If there is no addiction problem then there certainly is no need for a solution to addiction. There is a certain logic to that. ​
What is meant by compliance here is going along with the most important seeing and agreeing to the concept of abstinence. This early phase of recovery usually involves little emotional insight into the whys of the addiction; the concentration is simply on ‘don’t do it? on a daily basis. Once we accept compliance as a necessary part of recovery, we can move toward the whys and wherefores.
Defiance can rear its head in several ways the most damaging is in the form of believing that the terms of addiction don’t apply to me. Picking and choosing what is to be done and not. done An example of defiance can be becoming engaged in anger toward others who do not have your affliction or getting on the pity pot with the ‘poor me’s’. Defiance and anger can also be a block toward connecting and resolving with your emotions and feelings that underlie the blanketing emotion of anger.
People who are accepting are generally less defensive and have a greater sense of emotional and personal identity. Acceptance is the first step toward beginning to trust yourself and others, and open the possibilities of self-evaluation.
We are not talking about submission but rather surrender they are very different. Submission is a temporary yielding, it tends to leave the escape hatch of returning to the addiction open. There is an implication of force being used or submitting against your will. Surrender can be thought of as wholehearted acceptance and compliance. It is a voluntary action and does not mean being defeated as does submission, but rather a conscious decision not to participate. A boxer who has been knocked out has submitted to the power of his opponent. A boxer who has retired and does not climb in the ring any more has surrendered to the idea that he no longer chooses to fight.

So where to start?

Because addiction has both physiological and psychological components that need to be addressed, it is important to understand that the psychological components are not easily accessible until the physiological components are being addressed. This means a period of detoxification (Detox) must be endured. This is not an option. Regardless of the approach, recovery begins with some degree of reduction in use; any reduction will have its impact on both the mind and body.

Regardless of the option or options chosen, this is where ‘recovery’ begins.

Treatment Options

Residential Treatment Centers (RTC):

Residential Treatment Centers go by many names, and offer a variety of treatment approaches. They are sometimes called clinics, rehabs, recovery homes or houses, retreats, halfway houses, or sober homes. The most common approach used by RTCs is one that addresses the medical needs of the individual while offering a 12 Step program that includes workshops, group meetings and individual counseling. The inclusion of the 12 Step component is sometimes, but not often, omitted as there is controversy regarding the definition and interpretation of the 12 Steps’ use of the words ‘God’ and ‘Spirituality’.

Residential Treatment Centers (RTC):

Residential Treatment Centers go by many names, and offer a variety of treatment approaches. They are sometimes called clinics, rehabs, recovery homes or houses, retreats, halfway houses, or sober homes. The most common approach used by RTCs is one that addresses the medical needs of the individual while offering a 12 Step program that includes workshops, group meetings and individual counseling. The inclusion of the 12 Step component is sometimes, but not often, omitted as there is controversy regarding the definition and interpretation of the 12 Steps’ use of the words ‘God’ and ‘Spirituality’.

Out-Patient Facilities:

Out-patient facilities serve individuals who can’t afford the time or expense of a residential treatment facility. They often offer a wider range of choices for both addicts and their families. These choices can include counseling, group meetings, family support, crisis support, relapse prevention workshops, as well as support and training for school staff, employers, pregnant women, and parents with addiction issues.

Individual Counseling:

Most counselors combines cognitive-behavioral, motivational, insight, and goal oriented therapies.

The process will look something like this: You and the counselor will examine your challenges, you will determine what you want from the therapy, goals will be described and set, and a course of action will be implemented. This will be sustained with on-going sessions until you and the counselor determined otherwise. Counselors are also able to recognize physical and psychological issues that are beyond their training, and direct you to the help you might need.

A skilled and well-trained counselor will approach each client as a unique individual with challenges that require a custom fit. If a counselor states or implies that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to addiction recovery, then they are neither skilled nor well-trained. Their therapeutic style must be empathic, client centered, and flexible regardless of whether they accept the disease model or the life-process model of addiction.

Individual Counseling:

Most counselors combines cognitive-behavioral, motivational, insight, and goal oriented therapies.

The process will look something like this: You and the counselor will examine your challenges, you will determine what you want from the therapy, goals will be described and set, and a course of action will be implemented. This will be sustained with on-going sessions until you and the counselor determined otherwise. Counselors are also able to recognize physical and psychological issues that are beyond their training, and direct you to the help you might need.

A skilled and well-trained counselor will approach each client as a unique individual with challenges that require a custom fit. If a counselor states or implies that there is a one-size-fits-all solution to addiction recovery, then they are neither skilled nor well-trained. Their therapeutic style must be empathic, client centered, and flexible regardless of whether they accept the disease model or the life-process model of addiction.

Beliefs and Understandings

Disease Model:

The disease model of addiction is built upon evidence based theories. At the heart of this concept is the evidence that all drugs (cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, methamphetamine, tobacco, and...) activate pathways in the brain that control the degree to which we want something. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that is released when pleasure is experienced, and all drugs activate its release. Paula Riggs, M.D. an Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Colorado stated during an HBO program on drug addiction that drugs are 5 times more compelling than those things that we are normally compelled to want like food and sex. She states that they commandeer our brain reward system and drive our behavior. These two points, the brain reward system and the resulting behaviors, are at the heart of the disease model and the subsequent medical approach to recovery. Treatment includes medication to deal with the biological components while counseling deals with the behavioral components. This brain-centered understanding views the biological and behavioral as inseparable. It does not challenge an individual's free-will and responsibilities, but does explain that an addicted person's will is contending with very powerful influences, and that without help they will most likely succumb to those influences rather than make the rational choice of discontinued use.

Life-Process Model:

Proponents of the life-process model of addiction reject the disease model claiming that addiction is a habit that develops as a result of a locus of satisfaction and coping which can only be addressed by way of social relationships and life experiences. Supporters of the life-process reject the validity of recent scientific evidence, or the interpretation of that evidence, and the use of the word disease. They do not deny that physical mechanisms at play account for aberrant behaviors, but believe that the individual can regain control through strength of will and by repairing personal and social relationships.

Fellowships

In the world of substance addiction recovery, ‘Fellowship’ refers to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and any of the other groups of individuals gathering together to tell their story of addiction and to help and support each other through challenges and difficulties. There are organizations dealing with addiction to gambling, sex, cocaine, pornography, over-eating, and more. What all of these ‘fellowships’ have in common is the use of AA’s 12 Step approach to recovery.

The 12 Step approach, in a nutshell, is that the addict is powerless over their relationship with a substance or a behavior, as a result, aspects of their life have become unmanageable, unbearable, or unacceptable, and that they need help from something outside of themselves in order to recover. If they could have managed a recovery on their own, they would have done so.