January is synonymous with heartfelt resolutions. We tell ourselves about how this year “everything is going to be different.”
Unfortunately, for many of us, by the time February rolls around that new gym membership is getting used less and less. We avoid even opening the closet that we swore we were finally going to organize. The diet has completely been thrown out, and we finally just delete the language-learning app from our phones.
Perhaps even more painful than any of these other failed resolutions, year after year, some of us may have told ourselves, or listened to our family members say out loud, “This is the year that I’m going to quit drinking and using.” Or at least: “This year I’m going to get things under control.”
Yet despite the best intentions, this important resolution continues to fall by the wayside.
For 45 years we have worked with people who repeatedly have tried and failed to keep this resolution, in January and throughout the rest of the calendar year as well. Whatever they may think about themselves, it is not because they are “bad people” or that they are not “trying hard enough.” These are often the mistaken ideas people with addictions have about themselves, but they are not true.
Rather, with addiction, we are up against a disease that is bigger than the individual. It’s something that their own willpower alone is no match for.
We have found that with the proper clinical support, 12 Step immersion, and the residential treatment that we provide that long-term recovery is possible. This is even the case for people who have gone through multiple treatment centers and continue to relapse.
For our clients, their past failures are their greatest assets. It is the failures that help remind them that they alone are powerless over their disease. But with the right support, these past failures can be the foundation for a life full of purpose, meaning, and connection.
The 9th Step Promises are typically read aloud at the beginning of every A.A. meeting, and they boldly state, “We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it.”
At MARR, we firmly believe that this type of complete recovery is possible for people suffering from addiction and for their family members who are suffering as well. But we also believe that it cannot be done alone.
Our Clinical Assessment Team is available for a confidential and free conversation about the next steps you can take to get help for yourself and your loved ones. Call us at (678) 805-5100, or you can reach out via the chat box in the lower right-hand corner of our website.
