The three most powerful words in addiction recovery are "whatever it takes". Successful long-term recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism is kind of like having all the planets in the solar system lineup in a row, many pieces have to fall into place in the oriented just right.
I believe one of the most essential and an early component to get right is the strength of commitment and the doggedness to be successful in sobriety. Try this statement on for size, "I will do whatever it takes, to not use drugs or alcohol”. Please notice there are no ‘buts’ or qualifiers in that statement.
The essence of this statement and the concept behind it is simple there are millions of people in recovery and those millions of people have been through millions of experiences. Each one has gone through pleasant experiences life and unpleasant experiences in life. The common denominator is they do not have not use drugs or alcohol to avoid or enjoy. You don’t have to either. There are only two ways to handle what life throws at you: by drinking or drugging or not drinking and drugging. That simplistic view eliminates a lot of confusing and irrelevant choices.
Remember, no matter how complicated life gets you can boil it down to a rather simple fact: you will use drugs or alcohol you will not use drugs or alcohol. The successful people have chosen to do whatever it takes not to resume use of addictive mood altering drugs
