When we are first starting out in recovery, there are a couple of high impact things that we can do in order to get started out on the right foot. These are action oriented things we can do, such as:

1) Go to treatment
2) Go to 12 step meetings every day
3) Call our sponsor or other recovering addicts
4) Study recovery literature or write out step work

And so on. These are the kinds of things that are generally suggested to newcomers in recovery. Why? Because they work. They help people to get clean.

But what happens after a recovering addict has made it to 3 months clean, to 6 months clean, to 2 years clean…..are they supposed to keep doing these same things, over and over again? Are we basically supposed to stay in “beginner mode?”

In my opinion this is not healthy. Now, there are some in recovery who will argue that we should “stick with the basics,” and that it is important for us to keep visiting these same recovery tactics, regardless of how long we have been clean and sober. I disagree with this based on my own personal experience, and also based on what I have observed in others.

The reason for this is because people seem to get stuck in early recovery. They follow the 12 step program and end up using the daily meetings as a form of group therapy (not how Bill W. intended it to be, mind you). Some of these people in recovery get stuck in the same patterns, go to the same meetings over and over again, and basically continue to exist in recovery without making much real growth in their life. This is not the ideal way to live in recovery. If you are just treading water, attempting to stay clean and sober, then what kind of recovery is that? Not a very good one, in my opinion.

Better is to challenge yourself to grow in your recovery and evolve as a spiritual being. What does this mean? It means that instead of dumping your issues and whining in a 12 step meeting every day, you should be spending your energy in more productive ways as you progress in recovery. One way to do this would be to offer addiction help to others in recovery. You might also seek to find new ways to grow outside of the boundaries of traditional recovery. For example, the 12 step program generally focuses on spiritual growth alone. This is a shortsighted viewpoint and to truly recover you need to heal your life in other ways as well, including physically, emotionally, socially, and so on.