Recovery Month

National Recovery Month (Recovery Month) is a national observance held every September to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life.

National Recovery Month

www.naadac.org/national-recovery-month

Why is recovery month important to me?

I am a woman in long-term recovery and what that means is that I haven’t found it necessary to drink alcohol or take drugs since September 26, 1980. It is too easy to substitute addictions. I have struggled with some of that in my recovery also.

I am a woman in long-term recovery from anxiety and panic attacks for most of those years as well. I believe when I stopped drugs and alcohol and started breathing exercises, my trouble with anxiety and panic disappeared.

In the meantime, I attend support in different ways from the Native American culture, with ceremonies, and celebrations. Then there are other forms of sober support for me and sober support for me as a family member!

I was 24 years old when I first got into recovery. I stopped using alcohol and drugs when I was 26 years old. I stopped for my children. They kept me stopped for a while and then I had to stop for myself.

The theme for the 2023 Recovery Month is “Recovery is For Everyone: Every Person, Every Family, Every Community”. The tagline “Recovery is for everyone because it benefits everyone” reminds people in recovery and those who support them that recovery belongs to all of us. We are all called to end gatekeeping and welcome everyone to recovery by lowering barriers to recovery support, creating inclusive spaces and programs, and broadening our understanding of what recovery means for people with different experiences. While it may be tempting to characterize recovery as a universal experience or single journey, our community is proof that there are as many pathways to and of recovery as there are people. Our strength is our diversity and because of who we are, the recovery community has unique opportunities to learn, challenge, grow, and dream. By expanding traditional, limited conceptions of recovery, which center on white, heterosexual, cisgender, religious, wealthy perspectives, we enrich everyone’s experience.

My first experience with recovery was a family program. Alanon is for families of alcoholics. I got there on September 24, 1978, when a marriage therapist referred my husband and me there. She also gave us information about AA and the name of a man for an assessment.

Two years later while attending a family treatment program at Hazelden, I was asked to have an assessment. I remember the assessor saying that I could feel free to go to AA. In September of 1980, I attended my first meeting.

I didn't go to treatment for addiction for another 4 years. Instead, I was directed by a sponsor to attend 90 meetings in 90 days. I moved shortly after and the next sponsor had me do those same 90 meetings in 90 days. It took as I have been sober ever since 9-26-80.

I have had many years to heal from all the trauma, grief, and loss of a life of addiction. A life I lived with a family in addiction and then with my own use of drugs and alcohol for about 15 years. That sure doesn’t seem long now, but it was enough to cause me enough problems to last well into my recovery. I am comfortable in my life. I have loving family and friends.

You can pretty easily see why recovery month is important to me. There are so many ways to get into recovery and recovery is for anyone. In some programs they ask that you know someone. Everyone knows someone affected by addiction.

I think getting into a recovery program when you are young makes it possible to do whatever you want to do with the support of the 'we'! The best recovery is when 'we' are involved and you are not trying to do it alone. I think it takes the 'we'.

Long-term recovery is the best and I strongly recommend it! Life in recovery has been truly remarkable! ‘Beyond my wildest dreams’ as the saying goes!