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Recovery

(Maintaining Remission)

What IS recovery (or remission). The Betty Ford Center has a good working definition that is only the BEGINNING of the move from a paradigm of addiction to a paradigm of recovery.

“Recovery from substance dependence is a voluntarily maintained lifestyle characterized by sobriety, personal health and citizenship.

What does that mean? It means that once a person has been diagnosed with the disease of substance use disorder, and they accept that diagnosis (meaning they have made the self diagnosis - overcome their pathological denial), then the individual develops a comprehensive plan to achieve and maintain recovery.

So much for those who argue against the disease model as an “excuse” giving the person an “out” (don’t have to accept responsibility). As you can see by the definition, recovery is a VOLUNTARILY maintained lifestyle. Sounds like the person is accepting responsibility.

To read an in-depth discussion of the definition from Hazelden, follow this link.

For a PDF file of the complete article, click here.

(You’ll need a program capable of reading the file. You can obtain a free copy Adobe Acrobat Reader here.

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