How I recovered, by the people who did

Recovery suggests that you can get back to where you were before, which is to say, back to your old self, your well self, your whole, unwounded self. As such, it is a dark word, as well as a magical one. It is the mythical tree in the fairytale forest that has the power to protect you, or crush you. Recovery is teamed with the verb “to recover”, and to recover means to retrieve your former self, to find what you have lost.

But with recovery, you cannot go back. Instead, you need to let go of your old self or your old way of living, and to accept who, and what, you have become, and to live differently. To recover, you need to be able to see a future with you in it, you just as you are, however changed, damaged, flawed or fearful. This is what recovery looks like, and another word for it is hope. Read more here.