More on Addiction Recovery

We know all about the horrors of addiction. Media usually goes for the sensational, and they’re often weak on the stories of heroism, redemption, success, acts of love, feats of courage and recovery from affliction. You hear much more about the heroin addiction epidemic than you do recovery from heroin addiction. One of the soul enriching aspects of working in the addiction field is witnessing recovery. Addiction recovery is a beautiful reality that takes place on a daily basis across the world. This is the latest survey I could find related to addiction/chemical dependence recovery:

New York, NY, March, 6 2012 – Survey data released today by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) show that 10 percent of all American adults, ages 18 and older, consider themselves to be in recovery from drug or alcohol abuse problems. These nationally representative findings indicate that there are 23.5 million American adults who are overcoming an involvement with drugs or alcohol that they once considered to be problematic.

You can go to just about any town in the US and find an AA or NA meeting, and in mid-sized and large cities you’ll find many AA and NA groups. Then there are those who recover from an alcohol or other drug problem and simply go about their daily lives clean and sober, or they find support in the church, or some other source — there are many, although not enough. Most recovering addicts find that support groups are not only helpful to their recovery, it also allows them to help a newcomer to recovery. If everyone who recovered from addiction went their own way, it would make it very difficult for the newcomer in recovery to find the support, guidance and inspiration they need. Getting to know someone who recovered from addiction and is now living a healthy, sane and fulfilling life free from drugs is very motivational for the newcomer.

We often hear negative reports that over half the addicts who go through treatment don’t make it and return to their drug of choice, but just imagine if we reached a million more addicts through improved outreach, and 500,000 go into recovery. These 500,000 will become motivational for the millions left and are seeking treatment. Going back to the heroin epidemic, I propose that recovering addicts helping other addicts who enter recovery can be the most powerful solution, if we help more addicts get into treatment. The more people in recovery, the greater synergistic effect there’ll be, much greater and more powerful than the sum of the parts. If we take the 50% recovery number and double down on our efforts to provide high quality, accessible treatment, that number will no doubt rise to 60%, 70%, and this is a good thing, right? One thing I always try to get across to a person in early recovery is that they can recover, and, if they do, they’ll have the opportunity to help someone who seeks treatment and enters early recovery. There’s nothing I’ve found more rewarding than watching a person rise from addiction (any affliction) to stand tall and free in recovery.