We are here for you
We started this journey to support all of our community members in recovery no matter the path one finds to get to, or, which path one uses to maintain their recovery.
We know each person can decide best what will work for them to support their lives in recovery and all of our events and programming support this ideal. There is no “one way” to get to, or, stay in recovery. That is a myth that is sometimes perpetuated in the recovery community, and to truly help all in recovery, it needs to go away.
There are some who have had major issues with addiction and they just stopped. Something happened along the way that caused to them to evaluate their use of drugs and alcohol and they simply stopped. There are others who might have had a family member or employer intervene and with just that people discontinue or significantly change their relationship with substance use. In other cases people go to treatment maybe once, or maybe even several times, and, with that help they discontinue their use. What matters most in this paragraph is that there is no one way someone will either, discontinue their use, or change their relationship with drugs or alcohol in a way that improves their overall life moving forward.
When it comes to supporting someones life once they make that change there are a multitude of ways to do this. Some simply move forward without the use of drugs or alcohol and enjoy life without them. They don’t use any specific support system and their lives improve. Others may engage with a twelve step program and find that to be useful for them for a certain length of time. Their life improves with the help and at some point they don’t find the need for it anymore and move forward with their life improved. Others may continue with a twelve step program for extended periods of time, or, for the rest of their lives and find it helpful. Others use counseling from a mental health professional to learn skills to manage their decision to discontinue the use of substances and find that helpful. Still others may decide that they find joining a gym to improve their physical and mental health to be useful and they are able to keep to their goal they set for changing their relationship with drugs or alcohol. Some my go to SMART Recovery or other non-secular support group they find to be helpful. Others may use their faith in a certain religion to maintain their recovery.
The key aspect of the above paragraph is there are a multitude of ways to maintain ones recovery. Someone can decide to use one or several of the resources above. A person might decide to use just one and improve their life and maintain their recovery. What is critical is for this to be supported by those around them. If an individuals life is improving with whatever it is they are choosing to use to support their recovery, we should 100% get behind their decision and cheer them on. We must not discount the myriad of ways that can help someone support their life in recovery. There is no “one way” to support a life in recovery.
The more this mindset is shared by all, the more lives we can save in the long run. At the KCRCO our mission is clear: “…to promote long-term recovery from substance use disorders through education, advocacy and recovery support services resulting in healthier individuals, families, and communities.” We do this by supporting all ways an individual may choose to maintain their lives in recovery. All of our programming supports this, all of our trainings support this, all of our staff, volunteers, and board members support this, and, we have the mission of helping our entire community support this.