Why We Need More Choices in Addiction and Recovery

Every addict has their addiction fueled in a slightly different way. There is the potential for a million different forms of addiction, all of which push the addict or alcoholic along the path of self destruction.

Some addicts are angry. They lash out at the world and medicate largely out of frustration.

Other addicts have a slightly different mental twist that drives their addiction. For example, my addiction was largely fueled by self pity (even though I had very little to feel sorry about in my life, other than the fact that I was slowly self destructing!)

So we cannot just look at an addict and diagnose them perfectly. There is not just one type of addict or alcoholic. There are too many variables. Too many things that fueled our addictions.

Most of us experience some level of fear in our addiction. Fear and anger and toxic emotions. Guilt and shame and remorse can add to the mix as well. But it is all the same stuff, all the same icky soup that fuels an addiction. It all stems from fear, in one form or another. The way these fears and toxic emotions manifest in each of us might be different though. Fear, anger, rage, self pity, low self esteem, depression, anxiety….there are a number of reasons that people turn to self medicating.

Our addictions might have differed slightly but we all go through similar processes in recovery. We might have slightly different experiences but if we take a group of people who have all found sobriety, then have they not all walked a similar path? What, then, are the fundamentals of recovery? What are the common threads that we can find among all addicts? How can we break it down in a way that makes sense to everyone?

What, then, does this tell us about the solution?

It tells us that the solution had better be darn good and very flexible if it is going to handle so many different forms of fear and toxic emotions. The 12 step program takes a worthwhile stab at this task with the step work. For some people, this approach works fine, and with the help of a sponsor, an addict or alcoholic can work through a lot of their toxic emotions and arrive at some sort of sanity and peace in their life. If they do not do the “footwork” and get some relief from these toxic emotions, then chances are good that they will eventually relapse.

On the other hand, this approach fails for a lot of people…..it fails for more than it works for, actually. Which points to the idea that maybe some people need a different approach to recovery. Statistically, most addicts and alcoholics fail to find long term sobriety. Given our current techniques, medical knowledge, and fairly widespread use of the 12 step program, most struggling addicts and alcoholics do not fare well in recovery. You can find different statistics from different sources but the numbers are always depressingly bad.

Now there are 2 possibilities for this situation: One is that most addicts and alcoholics, regardless of what type of program or knowledge you offer them, are doomed to relapse and struggle in a long cycle of addiction and recovery. That even with the best possible treatment, even with the most outstanding and magical recovery program, most addicts are still going to fail to find meaningful recovery.

The other possibility is that we have not yet developed the best approaches to recovery, the best programs, the best techniques and strategies to help struggling addicts and alcoholics. The other possibility is that we are trying to use a one-size-fits-all solution for too many different types of addicts, when in fact a customized approach might yield better results. The other possibility is that we have a lot more to learn about recovery and how we can best help those who are struggling to stay clean.

I would like to think that this is the real truth, that we still have a lot more to learn about addiction and recovery; that more will be revealed.

This is always going to be a disputed issue I think because of the timing element. What I mean by that is that some people are simply not done using drugs and alcohol and they are not ready to get clean and sober. They are not finished and nothing can make them stop just yet. However, many times, people who are at this point in their addiction end up in treatment anyway. This happens a lot, and thus skews the results of various approaches to recovery. It is easy to believe that a certain approach to recovery does not work, simply because it did not work for person x at this given time. But the fact is that nothing would have worked, because they were not ready to stop drinking or using drugs. When treating addiction, this scenario happens all the time, over and over again. People just are not ready to stop yet.

However, realize that this works the other way too: we can look at a program of recovery, and even if nearly everyone fails to stay clean and sober with it, we tend to fault the person instead of the program, arguing that “they are just not ready yet.” What a shame this would be if there were actually other programs and recovery strategies out there that might have worked, had they been offered an alternative.

That is why I keep pushing alternatives to traditional recovery. It is a path that is working for me and I see it working for others as well.

Recommended Reading

• Overcoming Addiction
• Addiction Recovery is about Discovering New Layers of Information
• 5 Ways to Supercharge Your Recovery, Avoid Relapse, and Dominate Your Addiction Over the Holiday Season
• 10 Ways to Embrace Creative Recovery and Take Your Sobriety to the Next Level
• Holistic Addiction Treatment Center

Tagged as: addiction, addiction and recovery, recovery