4 Healthy Habits I Learned During Addiction Recovery
“He who has health has hope;
And he who has hope has everything.”
– Thomas Carlyle,
Scottish philosopher and writer
I was an alcoholic. No surprise, I still am. However, and this is a big difference, I put the word “recovering” first. So does my doctor, my therapist, and the other guys down at my local meetings, where they’ve duly celebrated every year-anniversary for the last 6 years. Yes, that’s what I am today. I always will be a recovering alcoholic if I keep doing what I’m doing, with the support of some great people around me. And that sits fine with me. You don’t want to know about the alternative.
Getting clean in rehab (my treatment), and then being given the resources to actively stay clean and healthy once I left (my recovery) has, for want of a better expression, revamped my life. I’m fitter, healthier, more sociable, and (no surprise here) clearer thinking too. Do you know something? I even feel more intelligent. The boy who scraped through college (just) more intelligent? Yes, go figure…
So, this article is about the healthy habits (my Top #5, if you like) that my addiction recovery has first educated me in, and then become as much a part of my life now as my utter refusal to ever drink again. Fact, my friend. Was I a health-minded individual before my sorry descent into drink-infested oblivion? No. Definitely not.
Recovery (which, for most people, is actively pursuing a life …