More Than “In Recovery” — Reclaiming the Rest of Your Story
Elizabeth Strauss, Public Relations Manager and IH Graduate
In recovery circles, we introduce ourselves the same way every day.
“Hi, my name is ______, and I’m an addict.”
There is power in that. There is humility in that. There is accountability in that.
But sometimes, without realizing it, we let that sentence become our entire identity.
Now hear me clearly, we need the Get Sober Warriors. We need the men and women who fight loudly for recovery, who mentor others, who advocate, who stay vigilant. Sobriety isn’t something we “graduate” from. It’s something we protect.
But we also need the people who don’t stop growing once they get sober.
When I was in active addiction, almost every ounce of my time, money, and energy went toward acquiring and using drugs. What little I had left, I stitched together into something that looked “normal” from the outside: a job, a house, kids, a car. I worked overtime managing appearances while my real life was falling apart.
Addiction consumed my identity.
Then I got sober.
And suddenly, I wasn’t spending all my energy surviving anymore. I wasn’t scheming. I wasn’t hiding. I wasn’t recovering from the night before. For the first time in decades, I had margin. Space. Possibility.
I started over from scratch at 43 years old.
Forty-three.
Some people would say that’s late. I say it’s right on time.
Because here’s what recovery gives you if you let it: the entire world back.
If we can beat a disease that takes so many lives, a disease that statistics say we shouldn’t survive, then what exactly are we still afraid of?
Go back to school.
Learn to play an instrument.
Start a business.
Learn a new language.
Write a screenplay.
Train for a marathon.
Apply for the job you think is “out of your league.”
Do the wildly random, oddly specific thing that has been sitting in the back of your mind for years.
Recovery is not the finish line. It’s the starting line.
Yes, your story might begin with, “Hi, my name is Elizabeth, and I’m an addict.” There is no shame in that. It means you fought. It means you survived. It means you’re honest.
But it does not have to be the last defining sentence of your life.
You are not just a recovering addict.
You are a writer.
A leader.
A parent.
A student.
An entrepreneur.
An artist.
A dreamer.
You are a person who overcame something that kills people every single day.
That doesn’t shrink your world.
It expands it.
It’s not too late. You’re still alive. And as long as you are breathing, the possibilities are endless.
Get sober. Stay sober. Help others get sober.
And then?
Go conquer the world.