What is Recovery?

September 17, 2024

Recovery is a term we often talk about, but what does it truly entail?

Recovery is not just the abstinence from a substance, such as alcohol or drugs. That is part of it for sure, but the process of recovery is a daily commitment to understand and manage one’s acute and post-acute withdrawal symptoms (PAWS) and correcting the bio-psycho-social damage caused by the addiction (Gorski, Miller, 2013).

Addiction is destructive and affects every area of a person’s life, therefore, true recovery must address each of these aspects—physical, psychological, social, and spiritual—to bring about meaningful change.

While achieving sobriety is an important step and can initiate the recovery journey, it is possible for individuals to remain sober their entire lives without fully living in recovery. “The error is that not using alcohol and drugs does not guarantee that you will be in control of yourself and automatically recover. Not using alcohol and drugs will break the addiction cycle and stop episodes of loss of control caused by intoxication. But… when the alcohol/drug based symptoms are interrupted by abstinence, they are replaced by sobriety-based symptoms,” (Gorski, Miller, 2013).

The key difference between sobriety and recovery lies in the fact that sobriety is a state, while recovery is an ongoing process. For a person to live a healthy, fulfilling life free from addiction, they must confront the root causes of their addiction, identify and manage triggers, find purpose, and cultivate healthy relationships.

At Adeara, our mission is to empower and equip women to live in sustainable recovery through hope, healing and restoration by providing long-term faith-based programming, counselling and life skills support.

Our comprehensive approach to treating addiction is designed to attend to the whole person: biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually.

Clients are taught how addiction affects the brain and how the brain can recover from the impacts of addiction. They are challenged to pay attention to their thought processes and through therapy, begin to resolve emotional and behavioural problems by addressing their belief and thought systems. Programming at Adeara also includes learning about healthy boundaries, co-dependency, parenting, finances and other life skills. Women learn about the recovery process and relapse behaviours to build confidence in their own relapse prevention plan.

Addiction recovery requires hard work and commitment to work through the process. Recovery does not promise the guarantee of a pain-free life, but rather provides acceptance, hope and an actionable plan on how to face hardships when they come. Recovery is reinstilling purpose, restoring relationships, and bringing restoration to each part of a person’s life.

We aim to empower women to cultivate lasting recovery that is sustained beyond the scope of our 1-year program. Through the tools and skills our team provides, women are equipped to carry and grow their recovery independently for the rest of their lives, breaking the cycle of addiction for themselves and the next generation.

Recovery is happening, one life at a time.

You can be a part of the life transforming work at Adeara and come alongside the women and children who are working on their recovery with a monthly or one time gift.

Visit adeara.ca/give to join the community of donors today and help break the cycle of addiction!