People often mistake a treatment service or a treatment episode to be "recovery". The term is often used interchangeably with "treatment" or "rehab". Yet even "treatment" is not a single modality or event. "Recovery" has a number of different definitions based on the frame of reference of the person doing the defining.
Recovery is a lifelong process. It is a therapeutic response to a chronic illness. Abstinence, an ongoing process in itself, is the very beginning of the recovery process. It is a usually a difficult, painful process that occurs in growth spurts rather than as a linear, continuous process.
Recovery is more than stopping the use of alcohol and/or other drugs. It is more than keeping the use of these drugs stopped. In order to maintain abstinence from mood altering drugs, including alcohol, the recovering person must learn to replace the chemical with healthy living skills. In addiction, the alcoholic/addict uses the chemical for managing emotions, managing stress, and dealing with the problems of every day living.
In this restoration of personal health, the chemical "problem solver" is gone, and must be replaced with other problem solving behavior. When someone is using alcohol and other drugs to deal with life's problems, they are not practicing using the living skills that they have developed. They may not have developed many living skills. Alcoholics and addicts often start using alcohol and other drugs when they are very young. Therefore, when they use chemicals for problem solving across various domains of one's life, they do not develop real living skills. When they sober up, an alcoholic may not have many living skills. They must learn to manage the daily difficulties and stressors without relapsing on chemicals.
Through abstinence, working the steps, and applying acquired skills and techniques for problem solving in every area of one's life, the recovering person sees improvement in their physical, emotional, behavioral, and spiritual health. They take responsibility for identifying and eliminating defects of character. In the process they learn new ways to get their own needs met, be responsive to others, and to engage once again as a productive member of society.
Many new living skills are needed for recovery. Alcoholics in recovery learn how to deal with feelings appropriately and to communicate them in a way that maximizes the probability that they will have their needs met. They learn how to be present in the lives of others once again. They learn how to take responsibility for their own feelings, decisions, and behavior.
Recovering people learn to make amends to others when they wrong them. They learn how to reduce their own narcissistic focus on self and to gain interest in others. They learn to be of service to others. They learn acceptance of self and others. They come to accept their lack of perfection, yet to accept their sense of being worthwhile. In the process of getting to know self again, being present with others, and learning to deal with life on life's terms, self-esteem returns.
Most people in recovery seek to use a higher power concept to prevent relapse and maintain abstinence and to further their recovery efforts. They recover spiritually, as they do in other areas. They acquire productive functioning as a person, family member, worker, and a citizen.
Addiction and Recovery - Defining Recovery As More Than Abstinence