i'm on fire

recovery happens

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill

since my becoming involved with advocates for recovery, i have found that there really are advocates for recovery around this country who are actively and intelligently working towards change around laws and opportunities for people in recovery. thousands of them.

one of the most diligent i would say, is an organization called favor- faces and voices of recovery. they are definitely behind the national recovery month and the legion of recovery rallies earmarked for september 20th. there might be one in your city or a city near you. and i encourage you to consider getting involved. it's my experience that almost everyone knows someone who has a serious drug or alcohol problem. probably more than one. and when we as a society can discuss and encourage recovery intelligently, perhaps more people will choose this option long before they shred their lives to bits.

here is the latest publication from favor which resonates deeply with me. i would love to hear your feedback. it is titled the recovery bill of rights and is aimed for lawmakers and loved ones across the land.

We can safeguard hope and improve the lives of millions of Americans, their families, and communities if we treat addiction to alcohol and other
drugs as the public health crisis that it is. To overcome this crisis, we must accord dignity to people with addiction and recognize that there is no one path to recovery. Individuals can recover on their own or with the help of others. Effective aid can be rendered by mutual support groups or health care professionals.

Recovery can begin in a doctor’s office, treatment center, church, prison, peer support meeting or in one’s own home. The journey can be guided by religious faith, spiritual experiences or secular teachings. Recovery happens every day across our country and there are effective solutions for people still struggling. Whatever the route, it will be far easier to travel if people seeking recovery can enjoy respect for their basic rights:

1. We have the right to be viewed as capable of
changing, growing, and becoming positively connected to
our community, no matter what we did in the past because of our addiction.

2. We have the right—as do our families and friends —to know about the many pathways to recovery, the nature of addiction and the barriers to long-term recovery, all conveyed in ways that we can understand.

3. We have the right, whether seeking recovery in the community, a physician’s office, treatment center, or while incarcerated, to set our own recovery goals, working with a personalized recovery plan that we have designed based on accurate and understandable information about our health status, including a comprehensive,
holistic assessment.

4. We have the right to select services that build on our strengths, armed with full information about the experience, and credentials of the people providing services,
and the effectiveness of the services and programs from which we are seeking help.

5. We have the right to be served by organizations or health care and social service providers that view recovery positively, meet the highest public health and safety standards, provide rapid access to services, treat us respectfully, understand that our motivation is related to successfully accessing our strengths and will work with us and our families to find a pathway to recovery.

6. We have the right to be considered as more than a statistic, stereotype, risk score, diagnosis, label, or pathology unit—free from the social stigma that characterizes us as weak or morally flawed. If we relapse and begin treatment
again, we should be treated with dignity and respect that welcomes our continued efforts to achieve long-term recovery.

7. We have the right to a health care and social services system that recognizes the strengths and needs of people with addiction and coordinates its efforts to provide recovery-based care that honors and respects our cultural beliefs. This support may include introduction to religious, spiritual and secular communities of recovery, and the involvement of our families, kinship networks and indigenous healers as part of our treatment experience.

8. We have the right to be represented by informed policymakers who remove barriers to educational, housing,and employment opportunities once we are no longer misusing
alcohol or other drugs and are on the road to recovery.

9. We have the right to respectful, nondiscriminatory care from doctors and other health care providers and to receive services on the same basis as people do for any other chronic illness, with the same provisions, co payments, lifetime benefits and catastrophic coverage in insurance, self funded/ self-insured health plans, Medicare and HMO plans. The criteria of “proper” care should be exclusively between our
health care providers and ourselves; it should reflect the severity, complexity and duration of our illness and provide a reasonable opportunity for recovery maintenance.

10. We have the right to treatment and recovery support in the criminal justice system and to regain our place and rights in society once we have served our
sentences.

11. We have the right to speak out publicly about our recovery to let others know that long-term recovery from addiction is a reality.

"Sometimes its like someone took a knife baby
Edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley
Through the middle of my soul

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet
And a freight train running through the
Middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
Im on fire"