Recovery???

"Am I in recovery now???"

The word "recovery" used in terms of drug and alcohol addiction is not well defined, it seems. The term means different things to different people. " I'm a recovering addict" is a phrase commonly used by lots of people, but what exactly does that mean? It could be used by somebody who's still using street drugs or alcohol but is working at addressing their issues, maybe attending a group or something similar. It could be used by somebody who's stopped using alcohol or street drugs but is on some form of substitute prescription. It can even be used by somebody who was once an alcoholic or addict but no longer uses even prescribed substitute medicine. Which one, if any, would be the more accurate use of this term? Further to this, can somebody in recovery ever reach the pinnacle this word suggests, and actually become 'recovered'?

All too often in my experience I've noticed that professionals, in the drug and alcohol field, would consider me to be in recovery just because they had secured me a script of substitute drugs. This thinking is bizarre. Recovery, in my opinion, is about a large combination of factors which will be different for us all, but involving physical, mental and spiritual factors, all combining in different amounts but contributing to the final outcome of securing lasting behavior change. Recovery cannot be imposed by a third party, it's up to the user themselves to decide what their goals are in relation to their capabilities. If somebodies goal is to stop using street drugs and stay on a maintenance script of something or other for life, then they've attained their goal/s and have reached recovery. Maybe why that's why the term is not easily defined, it varies for all of us.

To those that have an addiction problem, I'd like to say that recovery is about listening to your heart, not your head.