The ABC's of Recovery

I find that many people who are going through recovery, and even people who work in the recovery field, make this a very complicated process. In the early stages of recovery, it is important to keep it as simple as possible and to work on the basics. I would like to share with you folks what a mentor of mine taught me many years ago, when I was complicating early recovery.

We will start with A, which is for acceptance, and I have learned that before you can move forward with any of the steps of recovery, the basics of the first of those steps always leads back to that one word, acceptance. People need to fully accept their addiction before they can move forward. What I mean by that is they need to make a full commitment in understanding that there is no part-time use, no changing drug of choice, just completely accept in their heart that they cannot use mood altering chemicals.

I believe that once you have done that, you are capable of moving on to the next phase, which is belief. It was hard for me personally to believe that my life was ever going to get better, and get rid of that that feeling of hopelessness. As I was told though, even a homeless street heroin addict like myself had something to be grateful for, that being the fact that I was alive, and had a chance to make a life for myself... if I was willing to make changes, which is the C of our ABC’s.

Change is probably the hardest thing for any addict because we are creatures of habit, and change means work, which is something I know I did not want to do. Some of the most difficult things to change are our relationships, and friendships. Most of us were in unhealthy companionships during our addiction. In addition, many of us spent time with people who we thought were our friends, and when we got involved in recovery came to realize that those friendships were based solely on addiction. When you take drugs out of the equation, a lot of times you see that there was not much you had in common with that person.

The beautiful thing about recovery is that we don’t have to hang around with people just because they have drugs or can get us drugs. It is just something we all must open our eyes to. Once I was willing to make the changes in my life that were necessary, it gave me the freedom to live a happy life, to experience life.

I recommend to anybody what was recommended to me. Follow these three little words, but follow them in the order I have stated them to you.

Most of us in recovery are always looking for a shortcut, but once an addict understands that there are no shortcuts in recovery, the process will then begin.