FAMILIES SPEAK: Recovery—Progress, not Perfection

Coming Up for Air — Families Speak to Families about Addiction

Recovery is progress, not perfection, and it doesn’t look the same for everyone. As the family of a loved one with substance use disorder (SUD), it can be tempting to impose our own expectations onto our loved one. But as we ease up on expectations, we're taking pressure off our loved one, allowing them space to try things and see how it goes. Sometimes mistakes can become the best learning moments. The Allies in Recovery stance we teach families is an invitation to: shift our expectations, question our own perceptions of what we're observing, pay more attention to what's positive, and acknowledge it, while becoming more keenly aware of our own feelings. In so doing, we give our loved ones space to grow and we become more curious about what growth looks like from their perspective. Changing ourself makes room for our loved one to change as well.