sorry that you have this perception of what might be meant here, and your perception may be valid, but, being a recovering addict working on my codieism, i think that this statement is so true and i feel that it may not have been meant to harm anyone or any relationship, if anything, to help.
i feel that a fellow recoverying addict can better understand what an addict feels personally and better understand how drugs effect the addict that a non user. you just can't know what its like being an addict unless you been there.
its like how can you understand what cancer feels like unless you've had it.
a recovering addict can also help a newly recovering addict better understand the effects their addiction has had on their families.
it is common for a newly recoverying addict to think that as soon as they go into rehab, the world automatically turns back to where it was before addiction and that the love ones should be able to too. never mind all the chaos and destruction that they've cause to love ones and friends, they think that "hey, i'm not using now, shouldn't you be happy and forget how bad i treated you last wk". the addict have to learn to accept the damage, and learn that it is now/then after rehab to learn that its not all about how they feel at the moment, that they have to consider the damaged caused and know that your love ones are now needing the understanding that they so freely offered the addict.
what better way to help the addict to understand the destruction that they have created for themself and others, than a fellow recovering addict.
just like here a recoverying codie, can better tell me better understand what its like living with an addict than the addict himself. now i don't know how to make this make sense, so lets see how the others respond to this. sorry that you feel this way, i care.