I have the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors of the Alcohol and Drug Council, which allows me to be with a number of recovering people on a monthly basis, listening to their stories of challenges and victories. Perhaps a majority of us think that “recovery” simply means giving up chemicals, and certainly that’s the critical basis for anything else that might occur. But living in recovery means a great deal more than simply putting down one’s drink or drug.

Of great interest to me was learning that the use of a chemical – alcohol or drugs – is but one symptom of the disease of addiction. Cessation of the drug(s) brings the addict face to face with her remaining symptoms, and while each addict is unique, there are some common symptoms of addiction: dishonesty, self-centeredness, immaturity, and fearfulness, to name just a few.

At whatever age a person began using chemicals, that’s the age at which she stopped growing up and learning to deal with life on life’s terms. Therefore a great number of addicts put down their drugs of choice and discover they’re thirty-eight-going- on-thirteen. Many have made major life-decisions during their addictions: they’ve married, had children, gotten divorced, quit jobs, moved across country. Early recovery is like standing in the check-out line with major purchases and discovering you don’t have the wherewithal to pay for them. It’s difficult work, learning to live into decisions made while one’s judgment was impaired, and deciding which will be honored, which must be let go of.

Twelve-step meetings are essential for most recovering people. Where else can they find others who understand what it means to have lost so many precious years to a disease they didn’t ask for, but now must come to terms with? Who else would understand how hard it is to go to work or care for children, when you’re still craving a drink or a drug? Who else could listen to their tears of guilt and grief, yet inspire them to let go of the problem and become part of their solution, one day at a time?

Clinical services offered at the Alcohol and Drug Council, in addition to the 12-Step programs, can mean the difference between making it and not making it through those difficult early months of recovery. The ADC counselors understand both addiction and the difficulties of early recovery, and they offer personalized treatment and counsel in the face of what sometimes feels like overwhelming odds.

There is no such thing as a recoverED addict; an addict will always be recoverING. An alcoholic told me, “It’s called alcohol-ism, not alcohol-wasm.” It’s those “ism’s,” the symptoms of the disease of addiction, that a recovering person will have to come to terms with and hold herself accountable for. Over time, as she works a 12-Step program, gets extra support outside those programs, and addresses her “ism’s,” a recovering person becomes the honest, giving, loving soul her disease would have destroyed, and the misery of addiction is replaced by the serenity of living into life, one day at a time, substance-free.

Recovery is re-birth, a painful process at times, occurring against great odds, admirable, and something to celebrate as a community. Our recovering sisters and brothers are remarkable women and men who have much to teach us about that unbeatable combination of grace and grit.

Sober Talk is a monthly column by the Alcohol & Drug Council and runs in the journal the first Thursday of each month.