Northwoods Recovery

Congratulations! You’ve achieved what had seemed impossible; escaping the shackles of addiction by adopting sobriety and plunging into the exciting new world of a Northwoods recovery. The feeling is like nothing you’ve ever experienced before; frightening, and yet profoundly exhilarating. You’ll likely find yourself thinking that performing this near-miracle means you now can do anything. 

And yes, that too is possible; but only if you can successfully navigate the ever-present minefield of relapse. 

If you’re to have a rewarding recovery, it will be necessary to totally change not only what you are but how you order your life; where you go and who with. Recovering means it’s time to grow up and put away all the underpinnings of your addiction; time to leave behind old playgrounds, playmates and playthings. Think you can keep your former life and still maintain sobriety? Hang with old “friends,” hit the bars on weekends, smell marijuana burning and not feel tempted? Think again my friend or prepare to suffer a relapse. Those pioneers who traveled recovery’s trail before us left clear warnings of the dangers we’d face moving forward. Simply removing substance use from your life but not removing yourself from that life will not see you riding the recovery railroad, but the hellbound train. Recovering doesn’t render you invulnerable to relapse; far from it. Recovery demands a sobriety guarded with vigilance, or you risk losing it.  

Never forget; despite any protestations to the contrary, your former companions carry a deep personal interest in seeing you fail. Recovery is an affront to substance abusers, because it forces them to look in the mirror and see the addict within. Rightly or wrongly, you’ll be seen as judging their choices; judging them. 

 Now that you’ve made the difficult transition to sobriety, continuing to associate with any form of substance use is playing with fire; sooner or later you will get burned. 

The urge to feel the euphoric rush that caused your addiction in the first place may slowly fade over time, but will always be there, and doing nothing to avoid triggering those urges guarantees a relapse. Without fundamentally transforming the way you live, sobriety is only a temporary condition; Recovery, a beautiful but impossible daydream.  

Once those with whom you previously shared drugs and alcohol are left behind, you’ve freed yourself to act with us in demonstrating that, without them in our way, we do recover.

Do you think you may have a problem with alcohol? Alcoholics Anonymous can help. Call the local hotline at (715)360-4637 or visit www.northwoodsaa.org for questions or to find a meeting in your area.