The Reality of Addiction Recovery

Most people love a success story. With addiction, it’s always inspiring to hear that someone who had a problem with alcohol or some other drug, or a combination of drugs, stopped using drugs and turned around their life in dramatic fashion. The story of recovery is a powerful story. The reality of addiction recovery, though, is often not this dramatic or simple. Many addicts after going into treatment go back to their drug of choice, or develop a problem with a substitute drug. The addict might go to treatment several times before staying clean for a long period of time, or the addict might never put together any significant clean time.

Like the diabetic who go goes off and on a diet and stops following treatment recommendations, or like an overweight person being treated for an eating disorder goes back to over-eating, or like the person addicted to nicotine goes back to smoking, so does the alcoholic/drug addict go back to using drugs – not always, but it definitely can happen and often does at least once. It’s common to think of these people as lacking will power, and it’s usually true that addicts can’t recover just by will power. Addiction is stronger than the will to resist. But most people are trained that they should pull themselves up by the bootstraps and overcome any problems that life throws their way. This mindset that will power should be sufficient to deal with addiction has caused many a recovering addict to feel inferior and weak, thus surrendering to addiction for good in shame. Will power is highly overrated, unless by will power it’s meant that a person uses all the will power they have to utilize the help and knowledge of others to deal with a complex problem. I’m always suspicious of anyone who thinks of will power as a force of mind summoned up by strong people to overcome reality,

The reality is that a person can have very strong will power in all other areas of their life, but still not beat addiction through will power alone. The addict must use a combination of sources and tools to recover. It’s not in the nature of many of us to ask for help, especially with something like drug addiction. Because the stigma is still so strong, most people are ashamed, and even if they go into treatment, once they’re out, they don’t want others to know they’re recovering from addiction. Because of this pride and this idea they should recover on their own through will power, they don’t follow the treatment recommendations. They don’t go to AA or NA — they don’t tell their physician they have a drug problem — they don’t tell their friends that they might to do things differently for a while until they are strong in recovery — they don’t call someone when they have an urge to drink or use — they don’t follow up with an after-care plan.

The reason most people relapse is because they think their will to remain abstinent and their knowledge that they have a problem are sufficient to resist alcohol or their drug of choice. There are many reasons why people go back to drinking and using drugs, but it usually stems from not following treatment recommendations. Although a recovering addict might know she shouldn’t use drugs, after the smoke has cleared and she’s feeling better, she might let down her guard and before she knows it she’s craving the drug again. It’s difficult to follow a treatment regimen when you’re feeling good. The main focus of quality treatment should be relapse prevention. Relapse prevention entails an in-depth understanding of what leads to relapse and gaining the tools to deal with the pitfalls and triggers. If someone you know goes to treatment, have realistic expectations, and don’t look at relapse as failure — relapse can be a part of the process of recovery. Not everyone gets it the first time, although it’s possible and many people do. Recovery is an individual thing. It’s good to remember that the great majority of alcoholics/drug addicts die prematurely from the disease of addiction, so if a person is in and out of recovery, trying over and over until they get it, well I think this is inspiring.