EternalQ

I'm not sure how to put this.

But the progress I look at is in my personal growth.

And when I drink, I personally have almost no personal growth happening. Drinking stunts it. My growth becomes frozen in time.

When I don't drink, then personal growth resumes. And that is what makes life worthwhile.

That is how I measure my progress.

michelle01

Would just like to say that I once saw a graph diagram representing recovery progress, and identified with it immediately. There were some huge spikes up and down, especially in the beginning, but overall a pattern of progress being made.

Some people quit for good, once and for all, so it can be done. Others will take a bit more time. But I'm not really talking about the number of relapses a person may undergo on the way to recovery, to clarify. That's another issue.

Progress though is never typically linear or exactly the same for everybody. Some of the progress we may be conscious of and have some direction over. And some of it I think happens at a deeper level over time as your system repairs. Two and a half years in recovery and I'm doing better but it's ongoing, still a work in progress.