September is National Recovery Month in the United States and is joined with the International Day of Recovery on September 30 each year. This week’s post is about my personal experience as a person in recovery and why Recovery Month is important to all of us.   

The first and obvious question is: Recovery from what? No, this is not a celebration of physical therapy that has facilitated the recovery from a broken bone or from a disabling arthritic joint. Nor is it honoring recovery from a mental illness; Mental Health Awareness Month is in May. 

National Recovery Month is organized by Faces and Voices of Recovery and the government agency related to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Its purpose is to promote and support evidence-based recovery practices, people in recovery from alcohol and other substance use disorders, and service providers that make recovery possible. On their website, Faces & Voices of Recovery sums up Recovery Month this way: “This yearly observance celebrates the millions of people in recovery and reminds us that behavioral health is essential to an overall happy life. Recovery Month is an opportunity to tell the world that prevention works, that treatment is effective, and that people can, and do, recover!”

Recovery Month is a good time for me to say a little more about why this is important to me and to those I love. In speaking out, I am going to walk a line that is challenging for people in recovery. I have benefitted for over forty years from participation in several Twelve Step programs. As a member, I am asked to not share my last name when mentioning my connection with a specific Twelve Step program. The other challenge – speaking up that I am a person in recovery to give evidence that recovery does work – didn’t become clear to me until I began working on the book on Bill and Lois Wilson and their legacy. 

When the Wilsons came on the scene, the battle to eliminate alcohol use disorders (as they are called today) was largely a moral fight. If the person with the problem would change and stop drinking, they wouldn’t have a problem. The fact that he or she couldn’t stop was seen as a personal moral failing, accompanied by pity from others and shame for the person. 

Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, co-founders of A.A., changed that. They wrote that people with addictions to alcohol had an illness, a malady of mind and body. Long before modern science has confirmed that addictions are brain diseases, the founders of A.A. introduced the notion of illness or disease. 

Beginning in 1980 in some sectors addiction reverted to being a personal failing. Nancy and Ronald Reagan immortalized this belief in their “Just Say No” campaign against the misuse of drugs. Jail sentences replaced recovery as treatment, particularly for people of color. 

This regression resulted in the New Recovery Advocacy Movement. A meeting in St. Paul, MN, in 2001 launched this movement. Those present argued compellingly for a shift from the disease-only model of addiction to a more comprehensive model that demonstrated clearly that recovery from alcohol and other drug use disorders is possible and has occurred for millions. 

This change initiated over twenty years ago points out that too often our culture only sees the pictures of people currently suffering from the impact of alcohol or drug use disorder. People in long-term recovery and their stories are not known to the public. To show that recovery is possible and occurring all over the world, people in recovery like myself are encouraged to honor the Twelve Step principle of anonymity regarding being a member of a particular Twelve Step program while being open about being a person in long-term recovery.  

For me, this means I am grateful to proclaim that I am a person in long-term recovery which means I have been free from an alcohol use disorder for over 40 years and am also recovering from related addictions. This month, and every month, I join with others in acknowledging and celebrating that recovery is possible for me and many others. 

To find out more about Recovery Month celebrations, visit Faces and Voices of Recovery who with SAMHSA are co-sponsoring Recovery Month gatherings around the country. If you are a person in recovery, join me in participating in Recovery Month by letting people know you are in recovery and that recovery is possible and by attending any Recovery Month events you can. 

The octopus of addiction has tentacles that touch most families and every community. Despite the many in recovery, stigma and shame continue to keep many addicts isolated and despairing. It doesn’t have to be that way. There is hope. Recovery Month is about hope and breaking down the denial and stigma that prevent the possibility of recovery for too many.