Deconstructing Successful Recovery to See How it Really Works

Is it possible to deconstruct successful recovery in order to see what truly helps people to stay sober and what is unnecessary in their recovery?

Most complex tasks (such as recovering from drug and alcohol addiction) can be boiled down to a few key elements. In many cases this is a process of elimination….we are cutting away the extra stuff that doesn’t really contribute to meaningful progress.

But is this actually possible to do with something as personalized as recovery, or is this just a hopeless quest to simplify something that cannot be simplified?

When we look at deconstructing something like this, we have to use some generalities. For example, I might look at my recovery and realize that physical exercise is a critical component and is actually a vital part of what keeps me sober. But does this mean that exercise is a vital part of every person’s sobriety? Of course not. We are all different and we are all working the best recovery program that we can and there will be vast differences among us.

However, if we care to look at many in recovery who seem to have found success, can we find some general principles or general strategies that all of them tend to share? I think we can. Identifying these common characteristics can teach us what is important for long term sobriety. This is how to deconstruct successful recovery.

Common characteristics among “winners” in recovery

It would be easy to become misled here by not looking at a broad enough sample of people. If your strategies are too specific then they cannot be applied to anyone and everyone and they will only work for the individual who stated them to begin with.

Therefore the idea is to look at several of the “winners” in recovery and try to see the commonalities. Here is what I see as the key characteristics among those who are maintaining sobriety:

1) Motivated for personal growth

2) Strong sense of gratitude

3) Emphasis on helping other addicts/alcoholics in recovery

4) Taking actions that build healthy self-esteem and generate real self worth

5) Putting health first and caring for self

Of course this is just my opinion based on what I have observed in myself and in others. For example, some might include things on this list such as “strong networking with others” or perhaps “strong faith in a higher power.” I considered these ideas but I have seen too much evidence to the contrary – so many addicts with a really strong faith have relapsed, as have several of the addicts I know who tend to stress networking as their recovery solution.

So these are essentially just my ideas about what is universally important for recovery.

What are your ideas about this? What do you think are the defining characteristics of successful recovery?

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, alcoholism, drug addiction, recovery