Addiction Recovery Articles

Though the recovery community is vast, we are all loosely connected by the journey and the common desire for a better life.But all of our stories are unique and everyone comes to this place via a different path. If you ask a group of people in recovery what made them stop drinking and seek sobriety, the most common answer will be some sort of stressful event.

Accountability means different things to me in different aspects of my life. In the most direct sense, it’s meeting my obligations and showing up for the things I’ve committed to. Walking through the door of my office, paying my bills, trying to be a good wife, calling my sponsor, calling my mother. These are all things I’ve made actual commitments to do.

Determining if someone is alcohol dependent, is not as simple as giving them a questionnaire, especially if you know nothing about alcoholism and its symptoms. Some of the signs of alcoholism can be signs of other disorders as well, and they can appear differently in each individual.

“He’s an addict.” We’ve all heard it before, and lots of us have even said it. The word addict rolls right off the tongue and instantly conjures a negative image of what is often an unsavory situation. When we use the word addict to describe a person with an addiction, we fail to separate the person from the disease.

Before I got sober, I lived a life of degrees. I was always “kind of” honest, when it suited me. I was a pro at stretching the truth or altering it, or taking out bits, etc. I could finesse my information like a chef, a dash of this, a sprinkle of that—it was all very creative and self-serving and exhausting. I was very good at all of this, but my drinking was slowly chipping away at this veneer.

An alcohol dependent person isn’t someone who simply likes drinking – a lot. It’s someone whose body and brain have adapted to believe alcohol is needed for survival, just like food and water. This can happen fairly quickly, but normally occurs gradually over time, exhibiting itself in a number of telltale signs of alcohol dependence.

When I think of accountability as it pertains to sobriety, I think of myself. I realize conventional thinking here would be to say I am accountable to my family, children, friends and society in general. The truth about us as individuals is we are responsible for our participation in this world. Being drunk and irresponsible is not doing my part any justice.

While we all have different journeys in recovery, most will agree that accountability is a crucial component when it comes to staying clean and sober. Once we admit we want to rebuild our lives—whether it’s to a close friend, a family member or all our followers on Instagram—it becomes a lot harder to just pick up a drink or pop a pill.

While we all have different journeys in recovery, most will agree that accountability is a crucial component when it comes to staying clean and sober. Once we admit we want to rebuild our lives—whether it’s to a close friend, a family member or all our followers on Instagram—it becomes a lot harder to just pick up a drink or pop a pill. After

While one night of hard drinking can give you a hangover, it probably won’t result in any serious long-term effects; accidents and injuries notwithstanding. However, for the chronic alcohol abuser, this night is just one in a series of many such nights, or mornings, or afternoons, over a period of years. It is this pattern of drinking behavior that makes for a serious cause for concern.