Integrity and Recovery: Restructuring Your Life
Stanley R Leszewski - Founder - American Substance Abuse Foundation
The solution has always been the same: “Do not use no matter what. That is the only solution.” - Stanley R
Do the right thing, even when no one is watching. That is integrity. Without integrity, recovery doesn’t exist.
Recovery is not just about putting down the drugs or alcohol. That’s the starting line. Real recovery is tearing down the old broken life you built in the disease and rebuilding yourself from the ground up. Detox is only the first step. You clean out the poison so your head can finally quiet down, so you can become teachable. If you’re not teachable, you can’t learn. And if you don’t learn, you’ll never build the defense you need against addiction.
Recovery is About Learning Self
Addiction steals your identity. When you’re living in the disease, you don’t even know who you are. You run on lies, impulses, and self destruction. Recovery flips that on its head. After detox, the work begins. Recovery teaches you how to identify yourself - your thinking, your behaviors, your patterns, your weaknesses.
Then comes the restructuring. You learn new coping skills that replace the old destructive ones. You learn discipline. You learn honesty. You learn responsibility. The power of recovery is the power of learning. If you refuse to learn, you stay stuck. If you’re willing to learn, you change.
The solution has always been the same: “do not use no matter what. That is the only solution.”
The Truth About Relapse
The hard truth. If you don’t change, your clean date will. Statistics don’t lie - old behaviors drag you back into relapse and self-destruction.
And let me say this straight up: relapse is not part of recovery. Stop preaching that lie. Relapse is part of the disease. You’re either living in the disease or living in the solution of recovery. There is no-in-between.
What’s between those two? Hell. The struggle. The torment. And not everyone makes it out.
The Only Step That Matters
People argue over programs and steps. The only step that matters is restructuring your entire life. Everything else is meaningless if you don’t make that change.
You cannot keep old thinking and expect a new life. You cannot surround yourself with old influences and expect different results. You cannot hide pockets of the disease and expect it won’t spread. Recovery is all or nothing. Half measures have always failed.
Head On, Not Halfway
You don’t “try” recovery. You don’t dip your toes in. You go all in. Head on. Because the disease is fully committed to destroying you - it never takes a day off. That means you must be fully committed to saving yourself.
Full detox. Full restructuring. Full integrity. That is recovery.
The Choice
This is about saving your own life. Dig deep. Be fearless. Be honest. This is your chance to save yourself. You are worth it.
God bless, and may you make it like I did.
“Do not use no matter what. That is the only solution.”
Stanley R Leszewski -
Founder & CEO
American Substance Abuse Foundation
