I recently wrote a piece, Considering the Facets of Whites Laws of Recovery Dynamics to further the dialogue on how the New Recovery Advocacy movement fits into a broader dynamic of cresting and ebbing efforts to expand long term recovery in America as the norm in our society. As an aside and to be candid, I have found quite humbly that I have almost no original thoughts here, every time I think I have come up with one, I end up finding a reference to my point covered (more comprehensive and eloquently) in the writings of William White. An understanding of recovery history dynamics expressed as draft laws would not be articulated without his life’s work. Slaying the Dragon being quite easily the most extensive, example of writing on this vital facet of American History. When one considers the long course of this effort to expand recovery transmission in the United States, the simple truth is that it bends towards expansion.
In that initial piece on these preliminary draft laws, I articulated two draft laws of recovery retrograde and recovery reformation. In part, it describes how oppositional forces of retrograde, and reformation can be in play at the same time. We tend to move in the direction in which most of these facets are leaning at any given time. Right after I put the piece on Recovery Review, I had the opportunity to present at the SMART Recovery National Conference, in North Carolina, which was an energizing experience. One of the highlights for me was listening to a keynote by Dr David Best. David lives in the UK, and it was my first ever opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation with him and I shared the piece with him. His thoughtful and constructive feedback to me is the basis of this writing. I am grateful for his coauthor-ship of this piece.
I was so pleased to receive his feedback. It is exactly the kind of dialogue that is required to develop broadly agreed upon narratives from which change emerges. Dr. Best made a number of really important points, including that a view of a movement in complete retrograde was far too pessimistic, was in conflict with even some of my own writings about the inevitability of an expanding recovery orientation and many of the associated recovery movement dynamics. I would cede to these points and readily acknowledge the validity of the feedback. My goal in this draft Law of Recovery Dynamics is a framework to consider these broad dynamics but well short of something to consider as an authoritative and complete model. It is intended to be a living document, part of a broader community process subject to revision.
It would be a profound disservice to the generation that came before us to not acknowledge and applaud their efforts and the accomplishments they achieved that will influence the course of history for generations to come.
Broad brush accomplishments that will stand the test of time:
- We have shifted away from the historic acute, fragmented care model focused on a handful of recovery pathways and now embrace long term healing utilizing a myriad of pathways as the standard of healing.
- We have moved our systems of care from a pathology orientation to a recovery orientation aimed at resolutions from a strength-based stance that will stand the test of time. – I think this is true in policy but is much more mixed in practice.
- Recovery and the value of people in recovery to the vitality of our society is now commonly accepted knowledge in America and beyond.
Yet, as noted there are broadbrush dynamics in our progress, which are rarely linear.
Recovery Movement Dynamics Are Rarely One Thing or the Other or Even Only About the Recovery Community:
- A view of recovery retrograde and recovery reformation as being entirely in a single phase is overly simplified. In the context of retrograde, it is overly pessimistic and discounts significant gains that stand the test of time.
- It is a process that is not only centered on people in recovery but includes a rich tapestry of allies and coalitions with people or groups not in recovery as contributive to recovery movements. But one that remain more like starburst in the sky rather than constellations stretching across the cosmos. They are far too often center around recovery rock star style leaders rather than a broad custodial ethos.
Bending Towards Recovery: Lessons from History
While there have been waves of progress to expand recovery transmission in America followed by troughs of reduction, history shows us that we are making progress that simply cannot be denied. As examples, out of the Modern Recovery Movement, 49 years ago, remarkable things happened. Two seminal events occurred that summer in 1976 that once they transpired, changed our world with an impact so significant that they still reverberate now. One was Operation Understanding, the first time in modern history that recovery was publicly acknowledged so openly by some of the most well-known people in the country, people like Dick Van Dyke, Buz Aldrin and Mercedes McCambridge. The second was in the great state of Minnesota where the largest gathering of people in recovery occurred in what was called FreedomFest 1976: A Celebration of Freedom from Alcohol and Drug Addiction. Once recovery came out of the basement in that way in that era accomplished through their actions, it was never going to go underground in the same way ever again. Both of these efforts would not have been possible without significant support from allied groups of family and friends who were both impacted by addiction and committed in the value of recovery as a healing process grounded in community.
One of the persons with the greatest influence on these events was Senator Harold Hughes. He had worked with the advocates of that era to pass legislation that established research into addiction and publicly funded treatment that provided millions of Americans get help. Senator Hughes made another very significant contribution to the recovery community in the early 1990s. He saw the impact of the war on drugs and how it was eroding the very gains realized in the years before, and so to push against what was happening he founded the Society Of Americans for Recovery (SOAR).
A few years back I had the opportunity to interview Johnny Allem who had run SOAR. Johnny noted in our interview that SOAR was ahead of its time and just could not be sustained through nickel and dime contributions from the recovery community. Allem also noted that what Hughes did set the stage for groups like Faces & Voices of recovery and similar efforts across the nation. Hughes did not live long enough to see that happen, but we should acknowledge what SOAR did. SOAR was the keeper of the flame between the movements. It is a vital reflection that in periods of challenge, there are those that keep efforts alive to bear fruit in future times. It is these groups that ensure that there is a recovery reformation in future, better times. They are the fresh shoots of life pushing through the barren wasteland of addiction, the grow to saplings as Recovery Community Organizations (RCC) or Recovery Community Capital and when they bloom form the active community engagement part that yields fruit for the whole community not just the recovery community. As Johnny said in his own words in our interview, “We are the solution, and we will prevail if we can carry the message of recovery and the vital role we play as a citizen force on to the next generation.”
Movements are also dependent on what is occurring in the broader society and there are times in which societies are more able to support broad solutions to common challenges and other times when conditions are more challenging. There is some evidence that we are in an era in which change is more challenging, a topic I wrote about in Building Bridges Between Islands of Healing. As the title notes, even in challenging times there are vital pockets of community supporting local efforts. The point here is that in periods of recovery retrograde, there have always been the keepers of the flame of recovery who carry it forward to the next generation. The keepers of the flame include both people in addiction recovery and our rich tapestry of allied advocates on their own healing journeys. It is the islands of community that is the critical element necessary to create the conditions for the development of Connectedness, Hope, Meaningful activities, (positive) Identity and Empowerment (CHIME) at the individual level, which in turn reinforces the positive dynamic of growth and wellbeing within the broader community. The islands of healing are requisite to form the Community, the foundational structures or mycorrhizal network to create the first C in C-CHIME.
Rich Tapestry of Allied Groups
Progress in respect to our efforts to expand recovery would not be possible to the extent that they have been successful without individuals and groups dedicated to the goal of expanding recovery but whom are not in recovery from a substance use condition. In this way, history can be instructive, too. Since the very moment when Alcoholics Anonymous was born nearly a hundred years ago, the spouses and family members have been integral to our efforts. Illustrative is the story of Annie Smith (A Marriage that Changed the World, pg. 193), who was a sister of the Catholic Sisters of Charity who helped alcoholics find detox and supported families to heal from the devastation of alcohol addiction even before the first AA groups were formed. What came later was the formation of Al-Anon, and Nar-Anon and a myriad of other mutual aid support groups for allied family members.
In our own era we have family centered recovery community organizations have risen up across the nation to support family healing and advocate for improved efforts alongside persons with direct substance use. There are even efforts to expand our understanding of family healing empirically such as those of the Global Family Recovery Alliance. It is an international alliance of organizations, researchers, experts, peers, and advocacy organizations that have a common mission and vision for increased family recovery support and family recovery research around the world. At any juncture in our history that one may examine, it would be the norm to find a rich tapestry of allies who have supported our healing and walked alongside us in efforts to expand recovery expansion, not just in America, but across the globe.
Balancing Authenticity & Standardization / Professionalization
Perhaps one of the most profound challenges that we have faced over the course of history is to develop models of support that retain authenticity as they expand and become accepted within our broader care system. We have seen from our own historical record how the central focus of our efforts can be politized and diluted. There are themes we can learn from the Washingtonian Movement in the mid-19th century as I wrote about in Coopted and Colonized – Lessons from the Washingtonian Movement. Very similar dynamics occurred in the 1990s when the addiction treatment system became increasingly isolated from the needs of the communities that they served. One of the lessons from that more recent era history is that efforts to professionalize clinical services dramatically reduced the fields understanding and connection to local communities and cultures of recovery as the balance between authenticity and professionalization tipped too far away from community. Community building is an inside job and not like following a recipe to bake a cake. Recovery community cannot be franchised like McDonalds using a recovery in a box process. While we see this trend here in the US and the UK, without recovery community grounded efforts, below the thin veneer of recovery is only, yet another model designed to make money at the expense of recovery capital development.
As Dr Best asked me to consider (D. Best, personal communication, April 21st, 2025), one of the central questions is how we can achieve ‘parity of esteem’ for recovery organizations while offering quality standards that allow innovation and commitment to the local community. The answers are perhaps far too nuanced for this brief writing. In simple terms, we who are in recovery and are closely aligned allied groups need to be meaningfully involved in the institutions which govern and provide services across our care systems. This must include authentic inclusion in the design, implementation, facilitation, and evaluation of policies and programs that impact our lives. This is a fundamental desire of all groups, including ours. Failure to do so upholds stigma-laden policies and disparate care, which is the status quo. This robs our whole society of the value we offer. Everyone loses. It is what occurs when the balance tips too far towards standardization simply because the negative perceptions that come with our condition are so ingrained in our society that failure to do so end up resulting in paternalistic models of care that rob us of our capacities. The need to support authentic inclusion of our communities extend beyond the direct care system into our institutions of research. To understand what such a recovery oriented research system would look like moving forward, I would encourage readers to examine William White’s Frontiers of Recovery Research. Keynote Address, Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science (CoARS), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Moving Forward, Things to Ponder:
- What concepts steer recovery efforts forward, where do they emanate from, grassroots community or institutions? And what impacts do they have on these communities?
- What ethics, norms and mores are influencing recovery dynamics? What are we doing to reinforce them?
- Where is the money? Where is the power? Who are the leaders? Are these things diffused or centralized? How do we support and nurture recovery leadership and coordinate efforts?
- How are processes governed? Who is included? Are they ground up and collaborative or paternalistic and top down?
- How are messages that influence retrograde or reformative dynamics communicated and who controls them?
- When bad actors cause harm in the name of help, what happens to them? Are they held up as heroes until exposed?
- Is there a broad set of collective goals for which we are willing to set aside individual difference to achieve? If so, what are we doing to amplify them?
In closing
We do not get to choose what era we are born into or even some of the broader dynamics that influence cycles of history. In all things there are cycles, and it is equally true that beyond these cycles we can see the trend towards enlightenment. This is as true for the history of recovery in America and beyond. It is not pessimism to acknowledge historic downturns which will almost certainly to occur. Nothing is simply one way or the other in respect to the pathology of addiction nor restorative dynamics from it in our communities. Sequia trees require fire to reproduce. The Phoenix rising from the ashes is born out of the adversity of the fire. The keepers of the flame who ensure the embers of our movements stay warm between periods of rapid expansion play vital roles as history itself bends towards the expansion of recovery across our societies.
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