Art > Empty Fix Series > ReCreate
ReCreate
Recovery is a misnomer. To truly break free of addiction, one actually recreates oneself.
I learned this at a recovery center in western South Dakota when I sat down with an experienced administrator of a recovery treatment center to ask–is there hope? Her thirty years on the front lines had taught her the “3 C’s” of a healthy, sustained recovery. To avoid one’s drug of choice one needs a new concept of themselves (something to strive for), a new community of people who will support them in recovery, and counseling to finally address the psychological pain the drugs were numbing. There is hope.
The need to identify and deal with the underlying pain is one of the things that is most often missed in recovery efforts. Without it, relapse too often occurs. If you can’t get the person into counseling, pave the way by simply listening and encouraging them to consider what pain lies within.
The need to identify and deal with the underlying pain is one of the things that is most often missed in recovery efforts. Without it, relapse too often occurs. If you can’t get the person into counseling, pave the way by simply listening and encouraging them to consider what pain lies within.
Helping someone leave one’s community of users behind can be hard because they have bonded over shared misery, but it is essential. They cannot be around others who will not support them in sobriety. Offering understanding, rather than stigma is the first step in helping someone create a new, non-using community.
The thing that truly lifts them up is reflecting back to them the person who you know they can aspire to become. This is where re-creation really begins–by you giving them the space to conceptualize a new self image.
These three C’s come together in this art piece comprised of five mirrors, broken at first, then fused back together. The words representing the psychological pain become fainter, the pieces of self reflection come together and the framing, the community joins in alignment. Re-creation is possible.
The thing that truly lifts them up is reflecting back to them the person who you know they can aspire to become. This is where re-creation really begins–by you giving them the space to conceptualize a new self image.
These three C’s come together in this art piece comprised of five mirrors, broken at first, then fused back together. The words representing the psychological pain become fainter, the pieces of self reflection come together and the framing, the community joins in alignment. Re-creation is possible.