If you stick around recovery groups for a while, you’ll eventually hear someone talk about growing up in recovery. That’s my story. When this all began, I simply needed to get sober and stay sober. What I didn’t realize was that I came into recovery with very few skills that would be helpful for a responsible, adult life.

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How can we measure recovery results? I used to work for someone who would regularly remark, “I really don’t care how hard someone is trying, I only care about the results they get me.” This may be a good line of thinking when it comes to business performance, but it doesn’t apply to addiction recovery and mental health progress. To be realistic about it, trying hard in recovery doesn’t mean you won’t relapse, or deal with other missteps, but it does usually lead to improvement. See, the recovery results are in progress, even when it’s slow.

Is there path to addiction recovery that should be followed? What steps have to be taken, and how long before recovery works? Is just stopping use enough? How about life after rehab or detox, or even sober living? Addiction, now called Substance or Alcohol Use Disorder is confusing. Here’s some of what we know.

Where there are enmeshed relationships, especially in families experiencing substance or behavior use disorders, there is going to be codependency relapse. Melody Beattie bestselling author of  Beyond Codependency, refers to the phenomenon as “recycling.” which is a way of examining a relapse into codependent behaviors. Carol Anderson explains Melody Beattie’s 16 quotes for preventing relapse.