From what I've seen and heard in open AA meetings, levels of denial --- and moments of lies or denial --- are also often on the recovery journey, during actual real recovery. Recovery is a practice, it has a learning curve and a lot of surrendering. To that thought: so is recovery in Al-Anon for the rest of us affected by this disease. My denial has been deep.
Three A's: awareness, acceptance, action. This is critical. Each part of it, allowing different interpretations as our recovery deepens and as we're ready to tackle things that are too much to get into right at first. It's a journey done at different paces - connecting with life in healthy ways. Sometimes very quickly progressing. Sometimes simply listening, waiting (huge skills), pausing to allow Higher Power room to do for me what I can't do for myself.