Staying Safe in Recovery – by South Miami Recovery CEO Howard Lerner
It’s been a roller coaster ride since March of this year. I was cruising down the road with most of life’s challenges in the manageable or better box and for an aging ex-hippie and drug abuser that’s really a miracle. Well, that changed when this coronavirus thing started to take up residence in the world neighborhood and life as I knew it transformed. You know, a life in “recovery” for me wasn’t a real struggle – I always kept in touch with my basic roots. For decades, my routine included a few 12-Step meetings a week, mostly for the socializing, talking daily to others in recovery and working in the field of addiction treatment. I’m blessed to be surrounded by people I love and who are on their own recovery journeys.
Around late April, I noticed a change in my mental attitude. I thought I was good at adapting to change, but apparently… not so much. As my usual daily routine began to change, I started to feel disappointed and less patient with myself and others. The in-person 12-Step meetings moved to Zoom and I didn’t have a natural inclination to make the transition – in fact, I had resistance. Yes, I can be a little critical of myself. Seems to come with my personality and my character defects.
As the next few months passed, I carried on without too much complaining. There was the omnipresent virus now called COVID-19 with the on again, off again restrictions. There were also daily mental spankings from politicians, and on top of that, the protests and racial tensions.
Recently, I started sharing my feelings with some close relationships, and I realized: I’ve stopped taking care of myself. I relied too much on the status quo and was on cruise control. I knew recovery is an ongoing, living exercise that needed my daily attention and I, for whatever reason, was not practicing the tools that kept me safe and growing.
I work in the addiction treatment field and I know firsthand the difficulty for an abuser to want and establish recovery for themselves. The present circumstances make it even more challenging. What really hurts is the abuser that had some recovery and lost it.
I shared this little self-disclosure with you in hopes you can relate and that you remember to be safe in recovery.
To learn more about South Miami Recovery, contact us today.
