Recovery from Addiction: A Movement

Recovery from addiction has not been well understood in the general community, although major strides forward have been made during the last 100 years, for example the education done by Marty Mann, and many others through the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence founded by Marty Mann in 1944, and others who have worked hard to fight the stigma about what we know today as a brain chemistry disorder.

When people think about the word ‘recovering’ they think about, for example, a broken leg is still broken until you have ‘fully recovered’. When we say ‘I’m a recovering alcoholic or addict’ the general community thinks, just like with the broken leg example, that you are still sick and still using alcohol or other drugs, but are trying to quit. This attitude was confirmed by a national poll/survey done by Hart Research Associates back in 2001.

This research spearheaded Faces and Voices of Recovery into a direction that has lead to its success today – we have to affirm that Recovery Does Happen, and we have to use language that people can understand. We have learned that they need to hear us say that being in long-term recovery from addiction means we have not used any alcohol or mood altering substances since the day we started our recovery process. We have also learned they need to hear what good things have happened to our particular lives as a result of our recovery.

Join the movement if you are recovering from an addiction or an ally, friend, supporter. Here are some resources to help you join the move forward in reducing the stigma, and changing lives and communities.

National Recovery Month

www.recoverymonth.gov

National Recovery Month (Recovery Month), observed during the month of September each year,is a national observance that educates Americans on the fact that addiction treatment and mental health services can enable those with a substance use or mental disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. The observance’s main focus is to laud the gains made by those in recovery from these conditions, just as we would those who are managing other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma and heart disease. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover.

SAMHSA News is the national newsletter of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.samhsa.gov/samhsaNewsletter/default.aspx

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