04/06/2021
Look left, look right - you need all of it. And to the right you can also add meaningful work & relationships. Medication and therapy may get and keep you stable, but that’s not enough to reach recovery. Stability and recovery is like existing and thriving. Popping some pills, speaking to someone once a week, every other week, is easy compared to all of the other stuff that’s required to reach recovery. All of the other stuff requires a lot of initiative, motivation, hard work, and patience to see results. It requires us to be self-reliant - nobody can do the work for us. And it all starts with hope. As that grows you begin to believe you deserve more than stability. That belief and conviction grows into self-determination and even anger - “what am I doing wasting my life away,” which grows into courage and determination. The sad thing is that too many people stop at stability. They don’t believe there’s anything else. Our healthcare providers may lead us to believe it. Our families may be relieved to see us stable and not expect much more. We have to expect more for ourselves regardless of what everyone else expects of us, we have to put in the hard work, we have to keep going when things get rough. When we know that “we can,” the “we will” comes a lot easier.
my book: https://amzn.to/305RntG