| Drug FAQ on Marijuana | Signs of Teenage Drug/Alcohol Abuse | | Recovery Begins With ... | Recovery Begins With ... Hunterdon Drug Awareness Program has started our Addiction Recovery Campaign to help combat the stigma that is often associated with drug/alcohol addiction. A large part of this campaign is aimed at getting people aware of the issues facing those beginning the recovery process. HDAP has taken it's Recovery Tent to the Revelation Generation Concert and we will be featuring it again at the 2005 Recovery Walk on September 25th. We also have developed recovery wristbands to help with our Recovery Awareness Campaign, for information on the wristbands, scroll to the bottom of this page. Listed below are our thoughts on things that could help begin the process of addiction recovery. | # |A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Numbers 12-Step Programming - Recovery begins for millions of people worldwide with the support network of Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Narcotics Anonymous. 211 - Often times people don't know where to start, and 211 provides Hunterdon County residents (and soon residents statewide) with information on where to get help for a myriad of problems including recovery from substance abuse problems. Back to the Top of the Page A Awareness - Awareness that a problem exists is often the first step towards recovery that a person must take. Acceptance - Often times the struggle for the beginning person in recovery is acceptance of their situation, and accepting that a lifestyle change is necessary. Acknowledge - Acknowledging comes hand in hand with acceptance, once a person accepts their condition, they can acknowledge their addiction. Action - Recovery is nowhere unless action is taken by the person to stop the problematic progression of the disorder. Back to the Top of the Page B Breaking Down Barriers - Often times recovery will not begin until the barriers to receive treatment or other help are removed (for example, providing child care so a single mother can attend treatment and/or 12-step meetings). Breaking the Silence - Families are often silent about problematic drinking within the family and the silence only leads to continued addiction, and continued problems within the family. Back to the Top of the Page C Catalyst - Often times addiction recovery comes from some catalyst in a person's life, some event that sheds light on the problem in a way the person with the problem did not see before the catalyst occurred. Confession - Confessing your faults, which is closely related to acknowledgement, is key to successful recovery from addiction. Coworkers - At times the first person to recognize that a problem exists with someone is with that person's professional collegues, coworkers and business associates. Back to the Top of the Page D Discovery - Often times, even with professionals in the field, a common mistake is pushing recovery on somebody who is in, or needs to be in, the stage of discovery. One needs to discover a problem exists before they can plot a course of action on how best to recover from that problem. Doctors - Doctors are often times the first people to notice problematic drug/alcohol use through office visits of broken bones or other kinds of accidents, or problems, which in actuality are caused by drug/alcohol usage. Doctors need to be well versed in addiction in order to be more effect in identification and referral. Back to the Top of the Page E Education - Accurate education about the pros and cons of any given activity is essential, and the same holds true for substance abuse/dependence. Browse this site for drug/alcohol education FAQ's and Links to accurate information on Drug/Alcohol abuse and dependence. Epiphany - Often times referred to as the "a ha" moment, this is the moment of first recognition of a problem, or first realization of a potential solution. Thus for some, this will be the first moment on which the road to recovery begins. Back to the Top of the Page F Faith - Some people believe that it is through their faith in God, that they are able to begin their recovery process after the things that happened during their addiction. If you don't believe in faith, please see Fate or Luck as possible alternatives. Family - The family is often times the first people to recognize addiction problems in people, and often times the most influential. Fate - Some believe it is fate that brought them to their beginnings of recovery, that going through the addiction was a neccessary predestined step in order to begin their recovery process. If you don't believe in a predetermined fate guiding our lives, please see Faith (above, no pun intended), or Luck (below) for possible alternatives. Friends - What the family won't or can't see, can be seen by friends of the person with the addictions problem. It is at those times, these friends need to take action and talk to the person, or a professional about the problem. Forgiveness - People who are addicted often times hurt many people in their lives, during their process of their addiction. The ability to forgive (only those events a person is willing or able to forgive) is often essential for the addicted person to be able to strive forward in the addiction recovery process. Back to the Top of the Page G Gratitude - It is said that the grateful recovering addict or alcoholic will stay clean and sober. Grace - The recovering person is here through grace, some call it through the grace of God, other's through the Grace of their Higher Power, however they define it. Back to the Top of the Page H Higher Power - There is one and it isn’t you. People define their higher power as fits their belief system; often times it is described as God, but it is up to the recovering person as to this definition. Honesty - Without honesty, the journey into recovery cannot begin. Hope - Often times people in recovery feel hopeless, and recovery offers a realistic sense of hope that positive changes can occur in a person's life. Back to the Top of the Page I Imagination - To see a life beyond one's addiction. Information - Often times a lack of information about recovery often leads to inaction into recovery. Accurate information to a person can often help tip the scale in favor of recovery efforts. Ingenuity - The efforts put into figuring out how to sustain your addiction can be applied to staying clean and sober. Inventory - The person in recovery needs to do a searching and fearless inventory of their past, so that you can begin to clean away the wreckage and begin thus begin the repair work. Back to the Top of the Page J Joy - Joy tends to be present less and less as addiction progresses, and recovery efforts spawn this as you begin to recognize (or rediscover) your purpose in this life. Back to the Top of the Page K Kindness - What one begins to feel again once they gain an awareness of others in their life. Addiction tends to shut out significant others in a person's life, and make no mistake that addiction is a relational disorder, as the primary relationship being the addicted person and their drug of choice. Back to the Top of the Page L Love - The love of family, friends and other significant others in a person's life is often what begins the recovery process, and is key for a person's maintenance. Luck - I can't begin to tell the number of times I've heard stories of luck; luck to be alive, luck to not be incarcerated with all the things that occurred during a person's addiction. Thus luck definitely has its role in helping to begin the recovery process. For those who don't believe in luck, please scroll up to "F" for fate or faith as potential alternatives. Back to the Top of the Page M Making Amends - Making amends to those who were mistreated, abused, or otherwise wronged during the course of one's addiction is often a requirement of addiction recovery. One must be careful that when making amends, it will not make a situation worsen for any party involved. Meditation - Addiction knocks the mind/body/spirit continuum out of commission and there are many methods to help begin to restore this continuum such as meditation. Meetings - Meeting makers make it. This slogan originated from 12-step programs, but structured recovery based meetings can come from many different points of view such as rational recovery methods, faith based methods, treatment based methods, etc. Back to the Top of the Page N Newcomer - The most important person in recovery is the newcomer to recovery. Think of the fragility involved in the beginning phases of many other things in life: beginning a new business, the beginning of a new life; beginning recovery can be just as fragile and need just as much nuturing and attention in order to successfully flourish. Back to the Top of the Page O Open-mindedness — This comes with the realization that your way of thinking likely contributed to leading you down the path towards addiction, and being open minded is a hallmark to knowing recovery is beginning. Often times people come into recovery with the desire to control their recovery in the way they see fit. This need for "control" often leads to an incomplete or unsuccessful recovery effort. Back to the Top of the Page P Preparation - Preparing for the changes that will occur in one's life when beginning the process of recovery. Persistence - Persistence is what you’ll need from the beginning when the going gets tough (e.g., old desires and/or behaviors begin to return). Prevention - Substance abuse prevention that is from a science based curriculum has been shown by research to deter the development of addiction. Prevention works through education in grade school, middle school and high school. HDAP provides prevention programming in Hunterdon County, NJ. Back to the Top of the Page Q Quiet - Quiet and peace begin in your mind and your life once a person starts living sober. Addiction is almost always hallmarked by a lack of these. Quotes - Quotes and slogans are often a great and powerful pneumonic device used by people in recovery to drive home points, and clinical wisdoms. Quotes and slogans are often helpful for beginners in the process of recovery. Hey we found two for "Q" which is quite a task! Back to the Top of the Page R R - Yes Virginia, Recovery does indeed begin with the letter "R". This was submitted to offset the potential emails by people thinking that an original bit of comedy was occurring but submitting this suggestion. :) Reconciliation - It's necessary for recovery to include reconciliation of your past (things one has done during their addiction), with your higher power, yourself and others. This is often the counterpart to making amends (above). Back to the Top of the Page S Self Respect - Often addiction is highly correlated with low self-esteem, which can be caused by a myriad of reasons such as many psychological reasons for beginning to use substances, to unsuccessful past attempts to stop using. Soul Searching - Recovery begins with, and continues due to honest soul searching by the addicted person. Support - Support from one's family, friends, significant others, workplace, community organizations, and the recovery community is essential. Back to the Top of the Page T Today - Recovery can begin today, and will do so for many, many people across the globe. Treatment - For many people, recovery begins with evidence based addictions treatment by licensed and/or certified addictions treatment professionals. Treatment combined with structured meeting attendance (12-step being the most widely used, available and successful) has been clinically proven as effective in arresting the process of addiction. HDAP provides outpatient and intensive outpatient treatment, and there are literally hundreds of alternatives out there. Truth - Many people who relapse from previous recovery efforts will often tell you that this was at least one piece missing from their past recovery efforts. Back to the Top of the Page U Understanding - This one goes hand in hand with a bullet point above entitled Education, because it is usually the uneducated people (uneducated about addiction) who understand the least about addiction recovery process. Understanding breeds tolerance and non-shamebased recovery efforts. Back to the Top of the Page V Vigilance - This is needed by the person in recovery, and all significant members in his/her life. Those people who are vigilant about their recovery often times show the best success with addiction recovery efforts. Those who stop putting it as a main focus in their life, are often the ones who begin to falter in their recovery efforts. Back to the Top of the Page W Willingness - The kind of willingness that you know you have when there is nothing left to lose. A willingness to engage in these aforementioned points such as open-mindedness, forgiveness, soul-searching, etc. Back to the Top of the Page X X Marks the Spot - X marks the place exactly where a person is in their addiction today, and that same X is where the progression of addiction can be halted and recovery can begin. Didn't think we'd have an X did you? By the way, Xylophones are very hard to play correctly when drunk, so there's 2 X's. Back to the Top of the Page Y Yielding - Recovery simply begins by yielding to the addiction, often times referred to as step one's acknowledgement that one is powerless over their addiction and that their lives had become unmanageable. Back to the Top of the Page Z Zeal - For recovery to begin and take hold, one has to have zeal and be zealous in their recovery efforts. Back to the Top of the Page Instructions on how to wear the "Recovery Begins With ..." bands   PROPER use of the bands:     IMPROPER use of the bands: If you are interested in getting a "Recovery Begins With ..." wristband, contact info@hdap.org or call 908-788-1900. HDAP started distributing the "Recovery Begins With ..." wristbands in order to increase awareness of addiction recovery, and the issues people face when beginning the recovery process. This webpage was also created to help educate people on the needs and issues facing a person in recovery. If you have any other suggestions for this page?   Please email info@hdap.org with any suggestions, corrections, or additions to this list. HDAP management would like to thank the following people for the deveolpment of this page and idea: Mark Hodkinson and Tara Dyer for helping to brainstorm the recovery begins with slogan, Mark Hodkinson who first came up with the idea of a "recovery begins with bracelet" for promoting the idea, Tara Dyer for conceptualizing the Alphabetical listing of this webpage, Jass Pelland for contributing to over 1/2 of the content on this page, Burgess Gordon for contributing many bullet points to this page, and all the staff at HDAP! This alphabet is currently made up of 56 suggestions for what recovery from addiction begins with. HDAP Mission Statement   Hunterdon Drug Awareness Program will provide the community, our at risk student population, our clients and their families, science based substance abuse treatment and prevention programming that creates a positive outcome in their lives. These services will be provided without regard to the client’s sex, race, creed, age, religion, gender orientation, sexual orientation, or ability to pay for services.

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