From the Conclusion
There is, in sum, no rational cause to set addicted persons apart by their nature, character, or constitution from the rest of humanity, to view them as inferior, or to accord them less empathy and respect. To put it more personally, there is no reason for us, who know addiction from the inside, to view ourselves as different, inferior, or less worthy of empathy and respect.
To see the sober person inside the addict is not to flip from one absolute to its opposite, from contempt to admiration, but rather to see the person as a living contradiction, a person living two lives and balancing two personalities. To see addicted persons as living contradictions is to understand why liberation is the fitting metaphor for recovery.
Liberation as a metaphor points to the sober self imprisoned within the addicted brain and affirms its inherent dignity and value. Liberation conceives recovery as the empowerment of the sober self, bursting the shackles of chemical dependency, and emerging as the original sober person, newly freed and reborn.
Although this may sound revolutionary, it is in reality a restoration. Addiction has hijacked the person’s original self; it has stolen its energies, feelings, thoughts, and dreams, its very identity. Recovery gives them back. What we recover when we recover is our original self, the authentic us, the sober person we were meant to be and really are.