Long-Term Recovery: The introduction

Hi, my name is David and I’m in long term recovery. What that means for me is I have not used drugs or alcohol since January 31^st of 2009 and because of that I have been able to do some really great things.

That is my elevator speech. That is how I introduce myself when I speak.

My identity lies in my recovery, not my addiction.
Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate my past. The experiences I had helped shape me into the person I am today but they do not describe the person I am today.

Early in my sobriety I reveled in my past. I had used from the age of 12 to 36. I had no other experiences to take pride in. I took pride in being a tough guy that was the biggest dealer around sleeping with the hottest girls and doing more drugs and drinking more alcohol than everyone else.

My testimony was 75% war and 25% sobriety. Because of that I still thought of myself as a thug, a convict and a junkie. I was a grateful recovering addict and alcoholic, that was who I was at that time. I still hung on to most of my character defects which led me back to relapse again and again. %

My addiction laid my foundation but recovery is what was built upon it. That is what people see today. It is the image I want in people’s minds.

Some people have an issue with this. I have had people from various organizations tell me that I am forgetting my past when I identify myself this way. I promise you, I don’t. I refer to not doing drugs or alcohol, letting them know what I am in recovery from. The difference is, the mind picture it draws is different.

 It is positive for me, and it paints a better mind picture when I introduce myself that way. If I say I am a grateful recovering addict, people visualize me sitting on the corner of a bed with my arm tied off getting ready to put a needle in my arm. If I say I am a recovering alcoholic they imagine me passed out in an alley next to a bottle of ripple.

Not the image I want people to have when I am striving to be one of the faces of recovery to help change stigma. Instead, I want them to see me for who I am today.

Today, I am in long-term recovery.

Today, I am a hope dealer.

Today, I am a stigma killer.

Today, I am a public speaker.

Today, I am a motivator!

There is a better life in recovery.

I am living proof, and there are another 23.5 million of us in the United States. If we all shout the wonders of recovery in our communities, the stigma will fade into nonexistence.

Join the movement and together we will change the face of recovery. It starts with these 11 words:

Hi, my name is __________ and I am in long-term recovery!