Going to a drug and alcohol recovery center is a big step but most people do not really capitalize on the opportunity.  This is evidenced by the fact that success rates for rehab in general are very low and most people do not stay clean and sober for the first year.  In fact, maybe only about 10 or 20 percent at the very most will stay clean for a full year following treatment.  Given such lousy success rates, there must surely be a secret to those who are experiencing long term sobriety, right?

Well there is a secret, actually, but it is not necessarily easy to use information.  That is because the real secret is hard work.  Those who do well in recovery are not the ones who want it the most or who go to the most meetings or whatever.  It is the addicts and alcoholics who put in the work.  It is the ones who take a massive amount of action and follow through with that action.  It is the ones who establish healthy new habits and use those positive actions every single day as the create a new life in recovery.

There is a faulty mindset out there about addiction and recovery.  The mindset is this: people believe that there is a tactical secret to overcoming addiction.  They believe that there is a prescribed route to recovery that can cure anyone who is willing to put in the effort.  The truth is actually slightly different: anyone who puts in the effort can recover, but there is no one prescribed route that works for everyone.  There is no secret path to success.  In other words, it is the action that allows recovery, not the direction.  It is the actual footwork that the person puts in, not the program they are following.

Recovery programs are all basically the same.  Abstinence based, lots of positive action, forming new healthy habits, and so on.  This is not rocket science.  Pretty much any program that is abstinence based is going to work just fine for any addict, as long as they put in the work.

Folks, that is the whole secret right there: put in the work.  If you take action in recovery and put forth a huge effort, then you will get good results.  If you sit around and not do much and just think about recovery, then you will not do well and likely end up relapsing.  It is that simple.