On the Business of Recovery

The recovery process has some very predictable need to’s in it.

I caution here; there is a difference between want to’s and need to’s and the vast majority of us tend to lean on the side of want to’s until our life becomes so unmanageable and so painful that ...we’ll do anything, even do the need to’s.

Need to’s become a very important term in the process of recovery because if you forget or miss or don’t honour them then it may seem that all is for not. All sorts of things happen. Anxiety, anger, fear, neurotic behaviors, phobias, various addictions kick up and we go out or do research or whatever the current buzz phrase is for acting out. The list is quite extensive

The particular ordering in the acquiring of these need to’s is likely to be dif-ferent for each of us, and it really does not matter how we got them, but it does seem to matter how we process them. I.e., in the various literature sources for 12 Steps it is pointed out that not until the steps are done and done in order and done thoroughly will results happen.

It is something like trauma first aid. It does not matter how the injury was caused, but it matters immensely how the patient is treated and in what order the treatment is applied.

It follows the 3 B’s - Breathing, Bleeding, and Broken.

Following that order tends to keep the patient alive.

Of course there are exceptions, and it is understood that no rule is fixed.

It is simply a pattern that works.