Look – the first thing that you need to understand, is that recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism, is something totally separate from treating these addictions.

Treating addiction is typically the three-four-five-or six week period you spend at a rehab/treatment center – detoxing, receiving ongoing care and treatment using various methods like counselling, and helping you deal with the issues that led you to a life of addiction.

Recovery is what you do once you leave rehab – i.e. what you do the rest of your life in trying to stay clean and sober. And this is where I think a lot of addicts go wrong and why relapse rates are so high – because they see treatment as the end point, where in fact is really is only the beginning of the road for you.

So alcohol addiction recovery and drug addiction recovery is essentially all about the things you do on a consistent basis – to make sure you stay clean and maintain your sobriety.

It’s the NA/AA/12-Step or spiritual program you consistently practice, dealing with your emotions and feelings so you don’t use them as an excuse for drinking or using again, making sure you hang with the right kind of people (not your old using buddies), having someone you can call when you’re feeling low …

So recovery then is about taking action and doing the ‘work’ you need to do on a regular basis, i.e. creating new uplifting habits for yourself, that will your ‘addict self’ as someone who holds no more power of you because your real ‘Strong, Warrior Self’ has taken over.

So the treatment of any addiction should be seen as the stepping stone and preparation for a life of recovery. It’s the beginning – rather than the end of the road. Now I know there are people that leave a life of addiction behind them without going the treatment/rehab route – but they’ve also done it by making significant changes in most areas of their lives and working at it consistently.

So when trying to understand alcohol addiction recovery and drug addiction recovery – remember its something you do and work at for the rest of your life. It can be hard at the beginning, but with time does become much easier – and soon your life will be unrecognisable from the nightmare it was.