David Carroll

Seven Stages of Early Recovery



Posted: Sunday, August 17, 2008

by
My Dave Carroll

Over my years of counseling drug addictions I have derived what I believe to be a clear set of Stages in early Recovery, that occur for those truly making the effort to gain control of their lives once again. These Stages generally occur over the first 6 months.

These Stages are:

The 1st thing one must do to begin Recovery from Drug Addiction is to Admit that they have a Problem. Then



The 2nd thing one must do to begin Recovery from Drug Addiction is to accept that they need help ! You can't do it all on Your own! Then



The 3rd thing needed to achieve Freedom from Drug Addiction is to Accept Help, (Self Help or Professional Help) & stop using! Then



Fourth: Once One has found Acceptance of their Problem, Accepted some kind of help & has Stopped using, they must have a Support System! Then



Fifth & very essential, is to take Recovery One-Day-at-a-Time! It is a Daily battle, but Anyone can stay clean for ONE Day! Then

Sixth: After getting through A Day & continuing Daily, a Day becomes a Week & a Week becomes a Month! As you go you find that YOU Can Do It! Then



Seven: Having a Support System & having remained "Clean" for a while, You can no longer need or associate with Old People, Places & Things! You will now find that You can help others struggling to get where You now are! This is the Key to Long-Term Sobriety; Sharing It with Others!

As a counselor I have witnessed this progression time and time again as being characteristic of a successful excursion into Recovery! In my experience, Success very seldom strays far from this path, and I as well, am a Recovering Addict who traveled the path!!!

If you have an addiction and need help my resource box will give you contact info for my web site. If you feel that you may benefit from using these stages as a guideline of sorts, please contact me and let me know. I have much more info and help available to all for FREE.

David R Carroll, CADCA, Retired, is a retired certified drug counselor. He has served as a Program Director & in California prisons recruiting inmates for Aftercare. He is now primarily a consultant. Dave is a recovering addict of 16 yrs & a Vietnam Vet. Attaining sobriety at the VA Hospital, Fresno CA, at age 45, he was Addicted for 25+ years. Now 61, he is the WebMaster of, "Addiction: Why Me?" His goal for his Recovery site is to be a respected resource for Addicts & Victims. Dave is an internet contributing author of articles on Society's Drug Problem, education regarding Addiction as a treatable disease & self help concepts for Addicts & their Families. Dave is also a Motivational Spearker for the Addiction, Treatment & Recovery field. Contact him through his Web Site! CounselorDave has recently opened a new Sober Living Home, "The House of David" in Bakersfield, California.

This Article has been viewed 133 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Mark Parsec
 3 years 131 days ago.
285 fans.
Hi David, Thanks for writing this article. Recovery is so important. The message needs to be out there where anyone can find it. I hope to see more recovery articles by you at SearchWarp. I joined your fan club and would like to invite you to join mine.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.