Self-Defined Recovery – What it means to you.
“That’s when the freedom comes – when you can lay down the façade and the lies and just be brave enough to look at your stuff and say, OK you know I’m not alone and I have support here. It’s the best place to be if you wanna recover.”
“Recovery is more of a focus on healing and growing rather than just not drinking. Everybody is worthy of recovery… no matter what we’ve done in our past, there is likely another person out there that has gone through something similar. Their experience can definitely help another person.”
“But as life changes, my needs in recovery might change as well. I might need different support at different times. When I came back, a really nice lady said to me, “you’re not starting from scratch – you’re starting from experience.” Recovery is hard, but so is living with addiction. What do we have to lose?”
“[Working at Sophia Recovery Centre has] given me a new light or perspective of how recovery can work for different people. There’s not just one linear path – there are multiple paths to take, and different ways to do it… It’s hard, and it’s scary, and it might take a few times – but it’s worth it. In the end, living a sober life is actually more fun than living high all the time.”
“I ended up telling everybody my story [of substance use]- only to find out they all knew my story before I even told them. But their story is not my story. The story they told is not who I am. They got to know me for who I am.”
“There’s a lot of positive things, [and] negative things too. From a positive perspective, I am aware of what I’m doing all the time. I can do whatever needs to happen. But on the negative side your voice [in your head] is still loud. You’re still trying to figure out new ways to cope, new ways to ground yourself, new ways to distract yourself. I’m still fairly new to this, but I do know that there’s been a definite shift in looking for ways to cope with things rather than drinking it away. I’m trying to figure it out and learn how to deal with it in a different way.”
“I told the whole story in an article I wrote. I didn’t want anyone else to tell it for me, or gossip about me. I wanted to tell it myself. I took my life back and wrote out what happened to me.”
“No matter what, you’re still a human. Walking back into a job after you’ve been away in rehab, and everyone knows, is traumatic. I had to rebuild everything. I thought maybe I could take the worst thing that happened to me and turn that into a strength. Weirdly, publishing my story changed everything. It made me feel connected with other people, and less alone. I found other women who were going through the same thing. I used writing as therapy. Honestly some days that was my whole focus.”
“You’re looking for a new way of life, and to find a new way of life on your own is really hard. I don’t even have a huge belief in religion, but I do believe in spirituality. Something gets you through [recovery]. Even if it’s just good people.”