In a world that is full of choices, each competing for our attention, no wonder we have gone mad. Recovery is a choice to deal with your madness. How do you know if recovery is right for you? When you lose your way, finding yourself in a dark place, then you know it’s time to recover. There is nothing fancy about recovery. You just need to know the basics.
Recovery Terminology
Oxford Languages - recovery is a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.
CSAT Center for Substance Abuse Treatment - recovery from alcohol and drug problems is a process of change through which an individual achieves abstinence and improved health, wellness and quality of life.
God's Recovery - recover means to obtain again something that has been lost, or to return something to a normal condition.
SAMHSA, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - recovery is a process of change that allows people to improve their health and wellness, live independently, and reach their full potential.
Urban Dictionary - recovery is a sexual gratification as the healing process for a breakup.
Cambridge Dictionary - recovery is the process of becoming well again after an illness or injury.
Basically the word recovery is up for interpretation. I can’t tell you why or how to recover because that depends on you. But I can share my recovery.
To read more on recovery, Drunk on Words: Recovery efforts when addicted to life.
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Just the Basics
First, I think it’s important for you to understand the reason I choose to live my life in recovery. Then you will understand why recovery isn’t once and done, but a lifestyle. Finally, you might determine that recovery is for you too!
What does recovery mean to me?
Karen’s Definition of Recovery – recovery is the courage to unearth the causes to our hurts and hang ups, choosing to grow out of our flawed selves and into the ideal person we are meant to be. As you can see my focus isn’t on alcohol or sex, simply my flawed self.
Alcohol accentuates my character defects. It highlights my need for recovery, but it is my prideful self that demonstrates the need to remain in recovery. For fifty years I lived an unhealthy lifestyle and not just because I consumed too much alcohol. Choosing recovery allows me to live out the next fifty years as a healthy woman with a clear head, free from toxins.
What do we recover from?
Clearly, a drunk woman who goes off the rails and is arrested for assault is not a healthy woman. That might be a reason to stop drinking alcohol, but not the reason for living my life in recovery. My mind had become polluted and the result I needed to recover from a way of living that no longer serves me.
I took on myself, dug deep, and discovered what needs to be fixed. My actions are the result of not properly dealing with my past. It is time to do a clean-up. Weeding out my past, makes room for healthy growth.
It’s for those who want to recover from their past.
Many people have unresolved issues that stem back to their childhood. And as each year passes we accumulate more hurts and hang ups. Without the proper coping skills these hurts and hang ups turn into depression, resentments, and bitterness. They start to fester, the result: creating our flawed character.
I am recovering from myself.
Who recovery is for?
Recovery is for anyone who has a past and a future. That puts everyone in a big box, but not everyone wants to recover. Recovery is a choice. And it isn’t once and done.
It’s for people who are strong.
We can choose to hold onto to our dysfunctional past; all hurts, self-inflicted or caused by others; and the bitterness thrust on us by a sick society. Or learn to set ourselves free of everything causing the pain and disgust. We can choose to drown ourselves in our sorrows or find healthy coping mechanisms.
Recovery is for me so I can set myself free from my past and learn to live my life to the fullest, being present each day forward.
How does one recover?
Recovery is quite simple and has many options. What’s great about it is that no two recoveries are the same, so you get to create your own recovery. Then you just apply your recovery to your lifestyle.
We recover by choosing recovery.
If someone has a problem with drinking, there are a variety of groups to join. All it takes is a willingness to want to quit. Perhaps, someone is stuck in a deep depression. They can choose to address the cause of the hurt, but know the work can be quite painful. There is no need to go at it alone, so find a support group. We don’t need to continue and carry the bitterness from our past. There are ways to put it behind us.
I found what works for me!
Just the basics of my recovery are as follows:
- Support Groups – Once a week I meet with a group of like-minded friends who share their daily struggles. Meeting with others who discuss what’s on their hearts lets me know that I am not alone and helps me to work on my listening skills.
- The Tribe – Surround yourself with friends that are positive influences and support you. Meeting with my girlfriends offers me an opportunity to vent and be heard.
- Yoga – A few times a week I challenge my body with an exercise discipline that is relaxing but works my core outward. My instructors always insert a positive message.
- Writing – When I express myself through my words it helps me to deal with my daily struggles. It is an outlet that is driven by my spiritual and creative energy.
Recovery: A lifestyle choice.
My lifestyle did me no favors prior to choosing a life in recovery. I would fixate on what was wrong with the world, instead of finding the beauty that surrounds me. My body could not tolerate the overuse of alcohol. After I did a reset I had to make permanent changes to my daily living.
Christian Living
The biblical interpretation mentioned above, God’s Recovery, is to obtain something that has been lost and restore to a normal condition. At birth we are born with a clean slate and over the years we pollute our bodies with toxins, not just the alcoholic variety, but societal views.
If our foundations are strong we don’t succumb to the sickness of our world. Due to a weak foundation and my life choices, I lost my way. It was through the hardship that God so lovingly imposed on my life that prompted me to want to recover from my past and restore it to being a child of God.
You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again.
Psalms 71:20-21 NLT
A life in recovery isn’t for the person who is sick, but the person who chooses to live a healthy, active lifestyle.
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