MxKing971

Seems like a simple question... But I am young, and I am very new to recovery. BUT do you consider recovery immediate clean time, or an actual span of time where you learn to live life as a clean individual? I'm guessing the latter.

Dee74

For me it's staying clean/sober.

I got clean/sober a buncha times, but I've only stayed clean/sober once.

D

JD

My take is, getting clean/sober is relatively easy. Staying clean/sober is where the real work is. Recovery is staying clean/sober and it's a life long process. Always evaluating where you are and changing the things you need to in life to stay sober.

Redmayne

I suppose it's a case of whether you put the quality of your sobriety before the quantity?

Personally I've always based my own recovery, now followed by a prolonged period of, hopefully, a day at a time, lasting sobriety, on quality and you can't buy or fake that...

freshstart57

From my point of view, if you gave up alcohol or any other intoxicant permanently and unconditionally, then attaining sobriety is an event, not a process. This is not a trivial event, and its success can depend on the deepest soul searching and commitment.

What you do with your life afterwards is within your purview. If your sobriety fails, then something went sideways with the original premise.

For me, failure was never an option. I quit drinking on a Monday morning about 5 years ago. Since then, I have been rebuilding and recreating a good life for myself, engaging in activities for self improvement and personal growth that I often see 'normal' folks do. Plato said that an unexamined life is not worth living, and I feel that this applies to everyone, not just the newly sober or the previously addicted.

I also feel that applying a qualitative measure to sobriety allows for the introduction of personal doubt and indecision into one's state, and in that way lies danger. If you feel that you might be doing it wrong, then the distance to the next drink can become vanishingly small.

I suggest you set your confidence in your own sobriety at maximum, because nobody owns this like you do. Believe in yourself. Live your life, and make it a good one. Onward!

Boleo

Took me a few hundred tries to see it... but getting clean is a whole different ball-game than staying clean. Getting clean involved the single biggest struggle of my life. Staying clean involves a series of struggle and surrender cycles.

I struggle to see my part (only my part).
I surrender everyone and everything else's part.
I struggle to do my part (only my part).
I surrender the outcome.

zerothehero

I realized I was beginning to understand recovery when I found myself not only not having cravings, but actually preferring sobriety regardless of my circumstances. To me this has meant replacing self-medication with practices that allow me to experience life, the painful and the pleasurable, without wanting to numb it or enhance it with substances. Essentially, I realized I was in recovery when I finally and fully embraced Buddhist practice.

Boleo

I like the word "practice". It supports the idea that we must do something to treat our addiction beyond just not-drinking. Also, I agree that it is important to pursue a middle ground between pleasure and feeling comfortably numb. It is equanimity that helps keep me sober - not positive thinking.

zerothehero

Agreed, though sustaining equanimity does not always come naturally. But when I go off the rails I am much more skilled at regaining my composure than I was in the not so distant past. I credit this to meditation more than anything. I think of it as prevention. The practice reduces the likelihood that I will go off the rails, and if I do, returning to equanimity comes more naturally. Hard to explain. I guess I'm saying that striving for equanimity defeats the purpose. One must practice until it comes naturally.

Anyway, yes, one could argue that the journey to equanimity is the journey of recovery.

zerothehero

I wanted to add that I prefer to say "I practice Buddhism" rather than "I am a Buddhist." It's about what I do rather than what I may or may not be.

zerothehero

Doo bee doo bee doo...

Boleo

"Tao people never try, they “do”. To “do” means to provide the action and let the Tao provide the results. Tao people are detached from judgment and do not waste time on self-criticism. Tao people never struggle to be great, which is how true greatness is achieved.
Just as superior Taoists do not aim at the Tao, superior virtue is not aimed at virtue. Superior virtue is not intentional virtue, intentional virtue is considered to be inferior virtue. Superior virtue uses no force yet leaves nothing left undone. Inferior virtue struggles by using force but leaves much left undone. When good deeds are accomplished, we should not claim or point to them (humility). Those who know they do not know are on the quickest road to wisdom."