Recovery

Common definitions of the word recovery include a return to health or consciousness and regaining a sense of balance, control, or composure. Both descriptions are appropriate when discussing substance use disorders. When consuming drugs or alcohol to excess, a person's health suffers, the person loses the ability to control his or her use, and life is certainly out of balance. Drug and alcohol counselors sometimes talk to substance use disorder clients about being conscious (not under the influence of drugs or alcohol) long enough to seriously engage in treatment. The subject of recovery is appropriate in any volume of substance abuse topics since a return to health is the desired outcome for most individuals with substance use disorders.

From a clinician's perspective, recovery could be equated ...