Supercharge Your Recovery

Ever since the first time I went to treatment almost 30 years ago, I have been inundated with the word relapse and all the fear that comes with it. After all, we know that relapse kills. I have personally lost 4 people in the last 3 weeks to suspected heroin overdoses. I hate relapse, but I am tired of talking about it over and over and over and over and over again, ad nauseam.

Relapse is so ingrained that we even have slogans about it. My least favorite is, “Relapse is part of the program.” I would rather tell people “You never have to use again.” Focus on your recovery, not your next relapse. Keep on doing the next right thing, living each day to make yourself and the people around you better. Own your recovery!

I am moving away from relapse prevention when I talk to people. Instead, I am focusing on recovery enhancement. I want to stop telling people who to avoid, where not to go and instead talk to them about who they should hang out with and what they should be doing.

Sobriety can make your life good. It can help you build strong sober supports who know where you are coming from and what you are going through. That is enough for some people, having all of their friends being people in recovery. Some people like to be comfortable. They wallow in their complacency and are content living an average life.

You can stay sober and have no personal growth in your life. You can live your life on cruise control, never daring to put yourself out there for fear of failure or rejection. You can choose to be stagnant and just be glad that you aren’t the person you were when you were engaged in whatever behavior it is you overcame.

If that is you, and you want nothing more out of your life than what you have today STOP READING THIS NOW!!

I expect more out of life today than what I had yesterday. I will not settle for simply living a good life. I want more, and I have higher hopes for you as well. I want you to live great lives!

Sobriety is for the ordinary.

Recovery is for the extraordinary!

It takes work to be extraordinary. This is where I tend to lose a lot of people. I make people uncomfortable, pushing them to do things they don’t normally do. I have even been known to make people angry, because I challenge what they are doing and have been for years.

Let me make one thing clear! If nothing that we are doing changes than everything remains the same. I am not satisfied with the way things currently are in the recovery arena. We are not doing nearly enough. If what we were doing was enough, the stigma we face would be nonexistent. We would have top medical treatment, insurance companies would race to our aid when we were seeking help and news stories would not speak of us as junkies and addicts.

That is the world I want to live in, but it is going to take a lot of work to get there and we are going to have to get over a lot of the things we have been taught. If you hear me out and join with me, I will do my best to help you make your recovery better. Together, that is not only a possibility but inevitable. All we have to do is stop doing what we have always done and start doing more.  

I realize you are already doing a lot: working, raising a family, going to meetings, working with a sponsor or a mentor and possibly even being one yourself. That is awesome………………but I need you to do more.

I believe in what I call the bicycle theory of recovery. I will explain in a later post, I promise. Know that it contains what I consider to be the 5 Pillars of Recovery:

1.     Higher Power

2.     Step Work/Game Plan

3.     Sponsor/Mentor

4.     Accountability Partners

5.     Support Meetings

That is where a lot of people stop. They might do service work, which is amazing. By all means, make yourself necessary to your group. It insures you will go to it and meetings are important. That said, people are leaving out the missing ingredient.

Service to their community!

BAM!!!! Here is where I drop the mic and walk off the stage, with every one staring at me like I have lost my mind.

“I do service to my community. I _______________________.” You can fill in the blank with various things: making coffee, setting up chairs, chairing the meeting, sponsoring, etc. That is not service to your community. That is service to the recovery community. I mean service done in the community you live in: cleaning parks, volunteering at a shelter, helping Habitat for Humanity build houses, etc.

“I already do that,” you might be saying. Okay, but are you doing it under the umbrella of a recovery organization? Are you doing it while letting people there know you are in long-term recovery?

“No, this is an anonymous program. I stand on that! We are about attraction, not promotion.”

Trust me, I know. I have been around the various fellowships off and on since 1992. I am not telling you to go against that. Hear me out.  

I did not say do it under the guise of being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery or any of the other myriad groups out there that support those searching for and finding recovery. Do it as a person in long-term recovery. Don’t promote a recovery support group, promote recovery and all of the good things people in recovery do!

I am asking you to make your recovery public, to be proud of the hard work you have done and let people know about it. If everyone who was in recovery stood up and shared not only that they were in long-term recovery, but all of the positive things they had been doing since they found recovery STIGMA WOULD VIRTUALLY DISAPPEAR!!!

Unfortunately, that is not the case. People are afraid to speak about their recovery for fear of what others may think of them. We are to remain anonymous. It is about attraction, not promotion. That is fine, I am not promoting any particular organization, and neither should you. I AM PROMOTING RECOVERY!

Recovery is amazing!

Recovery is awesome!

Recovery is life!

So I ask you, please join with me and shout about your recovery from the tallest rooftops and the largest stages you can find. Join local community recovery organizations and become a resource to the community you live in. If there isn’t a recovery organization available, start your own. If you are in Missouri or one of the surrounding states contact me about Better Life in Recovery and we will work with you to develop a recovery organization that you and your community will be proud of. Find out more about us at: www.betterlifeinrecovery.com 

Last year Better Life in Recovery put in over 2000 hours of community service and this year we are aiming for 5000! Last year we had 8 events, this year we will have over 50 events as well as weekly family friendly fellowship opportunities. This is just a small group of people in Springfield, Missouri with no funding and no budget currently. Imagine what we could accomplish if we all banded together. 

That is how we give hope to the hopeless. That is how we give help to those who are unable to help themselves. That is how we foster dignity in those who are struggling. This is how we sway public opinion. Only together are our voices loud enough to be heard! Together we will make it easier for those who are not yet in recovery find their way to it.

In recovery, YOU ARE A RESOURCE!

Let the world know about it!!

After all, silence is deadly!