Recovery During Social Isolation

Addiction is the only disease in which the person suffering from it is shamed and left socially isolated. To reach out for help makes us vulnerable to many things. It makes us vulnerable to judgement, criticism, and questions as to why we just "can't quit." Aside from all that, once we attempt recovery, we are bombarded with the very things we used over...feelings, emotions, our past, our "demons." Most of us used because the thought of facing these things without substances was unthinkable.

Coming into recovery allows us to connect with others who used over the same things we did. Our journeys might have been different, but our destination was the same..addiction. When we come together in groups during recovery, we realize that we are not unique, we've all done things we've been ashamed of,, hurt the people we love, sold our self-respect and self-worth for our drug of choice. Coming into recovery means facing those things, taking accountability for what we've done, but in a group, we do it together. So now what? What happens to us, to our recovery during a time of social distancing and isolation?

Perspective is reality, right? What if we looked at this time as time given to us to work on ourselves? There's nowhere to go, no place to gather with other people. Busying ourselves is a trauma response and a way to get out of looking at what we need to make things right within us. What better time than now.