Many people struggling with drug addiction think that recovery is nearly impossible for them. They’ve heard the horror stories of painful withdrawal symptoms, they can’t imagine life without drugs, and they can’t fathom actually being able to get through a recovery effort. But people do recover from drug addiction, every day in fact. But they don’t usually do it alone. They have lots of help.

Help with drug addiction recovery can come from many different places in the form of loving family and friends, drug treatment programs, and drug rehab facilities. Recovery is a long process that requires a commitment from a lot of people, but when you get help with your drug addiction, recovery is a very real possibility.

Drug addiction recovery entails more than just getting over the physical withdrawal from drugs, it also involves a healing of the mind and the mindset that started you towards drug addiction in the first place. Recovery is a spiritual process that needs to take place in the mind, heart, and soul.

Recovery comes about after a long period of time. The initial phase is abstinence or not using the drug. Abstinence eventually moves into recovery as the addict begins to change and grow in positive ways. Abstinence requires a decision, recovery requires effort.

Once you have gone through the abstinence phase with withdrawal from the drug, you can then move on to mental recovery. This type of recovery has to do with issues like brain function and brain chemistry. It involves changing your attitudes, belief systems, and rational thoughts so that you don’t start using drugs again.

Emotional recovery from drugs is a very complex part of the healing process as well. This part of recovery has more to do with your feelings than anything else. Emotional recovery involves learning to deal with feelings openly, honestly, and responsibly. It includes learning to express and resolve feelings in appropriate and effective ways. For most people in recovery, emotional recovery can take years.

Finally, you’ll need to recover from drug addiction spiritually. Even if you are not a religious person, spiritual recovery has more to do with your attitude toward life and how you want to live that life. When you begin to recover spiritually, the way you look at the world changes: fear is replaced by faith, self-pity turns to gratitude, resentment becomes acceptance, and dishonesty turns to honesty.

You can choose to undertake your drug addiction recovery at a rehab facility or through a 12-step program, but you truly do need to seek out the help of others if you want to have a full recovery. Very few people are able to recover from drug addiction on their own. Don’t be afraid to ask for help because you can have a successful recovery from drug addiction once you do!