Comments on: What to Expect in Early Recovery from Addiction http://addictionhelpresource.com/what-to-expect-in-early-recovery-from-addiction/ Helping you to recover from drug and alcohol addiction Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:48:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: jenn http://addictionhelpresource.com/what-to-expect-in-early-recovery-from-addiction/#comment-12 jenn Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:28:31 +0000 http://addictionhelpresource.com/?p=3#comment-12 Wow!! Great article. I am coming up on my 3 years clean and sober in 2 days, and was looking for information about what I might expect around this time (in terms of feeling crazy LOL). I cannot agree with this article more. I went through treatment in Vancouver BC, first at the Women and Children's Hospital, and then a longer term recovery house, where I stayed for 6 months. At the recovery house, we had NA stepwork crammed down out throats. During my stay there, I had to do stepwork everyday, and we were all expected to reach at least our step 6 before we left. We had to attend meetings every night, and do 2 meetins during the weekend. NA is great and all, but it gets mind numbingly boring hearing the same stuff, day in and day out. When I left there, I stayed with going to NA for about 7 months afterwards. And then I saw the sickness that was keeping people in the rooms, and saw them preaching about being clean and sober, but behaving in the dodgiest of fashions, doing things like people lying to welfare to get money, taking each others prescription pain medication....basically doing shit that NA does not support. And these people were people who had some of the longest clean time in my community, and were holding step groups, and were sponsors for multiple people at a time. So, I decided to leave NA, despite it being drilled into my head that without NA, people failed and went back out and used. What I did instead was continue to work closely with my therapist who was also a drug and alcohol counsellor, took advantage of the different classes/courses offered through the local mental health/addictions office, and worked really hard on figuring out the how's and why's of my addiction. I took part in the Clemente course that was offered here, which is a free university course, for credit. And now I am enrolled part time in university for liberal arts. I received an A- in the first semester of the course. Looking back, I cannot say that I ever imagined myself sitting where I am today, coming up to 3 years clean and sober. I guess what I am trying to say here is, find out what works for you!! Recovery, not just getting clean, but true recovery that helps you to change not just your drug issue but your entire life, is not a cookie cutter formula. And when people tell you that there is only one true way to get and stay in recovery, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction!! Wow!! Great article. I am coming up on my 3 years clean and sober in 2 days, and was looking for information about what I might expect around this time (in terms of feeling crazy LOL).

I cannot agree with this article more. I went through treatment in Vancouver BC, first at the Women and Children’s Hospital, and then a longer term recovery house, where I stayed for 6 months. At the recovery house, we had NA stepwork crammed down out throats. During my stay there, I had to do stepwork everyday, and we were all expected to reach at least our step 6 before we left. We had to attend meetings every night, and do 2 meetins during the weekend.
NA is great and all, but it gets mind numbingly boring hearing the same stuff, day in and day out.

When I left there, I stayed with going to NA for about 7 months afterwards. And then I saw the sickness that was keeping people in the rooms, and saw them preaching about being clean and sober, but behaving in the dodgiest of fashions, doing things like people lying to welfare to get money, taking each others prescription pain medication….basically doing shit that NA does not support. And these people were people who had some of the longest clean time in my community, and were holding step groups, and were sponsors for multiple people at a time.

So, I decided to leave NA, despite it being drilled into my head that without NA, people failed and went back out and used.

What I did instead was continue to work closely with my therapist who was also a drug and alcohol counsellor, took advantage of the different classes/courses offered through the local mental health/addictions office, and worked really hard on figuring out the how’s and why’s of my addiction. I took part in the Clemente course that was offered here, which is a free university course, for credit. And now I am enrolled part time in university for liberal arts. I received an A- in the first semester of the course.

Looking back, I cannot say that I ever imagined myself sitting where I am today, coming up to 3 years clean and sober.

I guess what I am trying to say here is, find out what works for you!! Recovery, not just getting clean, but true recovery that helps you to change not just your drug issue but your entire life, is not a cookie cutter formula. And when people tell you that there is only one true way to get and stay in recovery, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction!!

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