You may have heard of “urge surfing”. Let’s add “recovery surfing”.

Some years ago, it dawned on me that we lacked a concept that seemed important. And that we also lacked a term for it.

Or we at least lacked a concrete awareness of this idea with a shared language for it.

My solution was to coin the term “recovery surfing” as the name for the concept.

Let me describe the concept.

“Recovery Surfing” refers to the combination of the basic stance toward, and the content and quality of, one’s mindful consideration of the space between, one’s self and their recovery.

For example…

1. Person A completed treatment two and a half years ago, and consciously knows they’re working on recovery management. They do that work daily, with daily intentionality. During treatment they were instructed that the greatest predictor of non-adherence to a care plan is starting to feel better. Like, when your fever goes away and your energy returns you “forget” to take your last two days of the antibiotic for your lung infection. When this person catches themself feeling grateful and content, they realize this and adhere to their plan. They consciously know this helps solidify their well-being and the practices that undergird it. In their outpatient continuing care group, after their second year of attending, they bid topics like how their life goals look now, how they relate to their own improvement, and how their various ways of relating to their improvement sometimes solidify, or at other times erode, their stance toward their recovery. They talk about what it’s like on the surfboard now, and how things look now. And how what it’s like and how things look inter-connect. And the navigating of that ride.
2. Person B completed treatment two and a half years ago. They have a daily plan of reading, talking with others, some spiritual activity, and self-checking at the end of the day. They stick to this plan better the worse they feel. When they’re in group, they bid this difficulty as a topic and are consciously aware of it. What they don’t seem to realize consciously is that they don’t ever bid the fact that their relational stance with their own recovery becomes more spongy the longer they do well. Or bid how they experience doing well. Or how they relate to doing well. In the days between groups, the fact that their adherence to their daily plan has changing patterns of consistency and quality is only on the edge, or border, of their conscious awareness – unless they feel especially bad.
3. Person C completed treatment two and a half years ago. When cravings emerge, they consciously work on craving management. They use the technique called “Urge Surfing” for this quite successfully and are good at it. They seek support from mutual aid when they feel bad and feel like they need some input. At other times, when they have several days or weeks in a row of feeling better (both a combination of relief from pressure and of experiencing the joys of their new life situation) their work on their problems stops. To them it’s both natural and not alarming for that work to stop, as they are back to feeling normal and are experiencing a lift. Regardless, this person does not do any pro-active work on their wellbeing at all and are not consciously aware of that as any kind of meaningful lack. Their way of successful daily living is just normal and natural, and completely outside of their own attention as any kind of topic on its own. They have never discussed this on any level in group.

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Sometimes, when we are on the surfboard of our own recovery, we might glance at the shore and be thrilled with what we see. We might also really be enjoying the ride and consciously aware of how much fun and better life is. Sometimes this new kind of positive experience can throw us off a bit – be a bit destabilizing. In moments like these, recovery surfing would include realizing this, consciously switching into mindfulness as a response, and breathing through the self-awareness of doing well and having so much fun. And we might re-adjust our feet a bit in order to stay safely rooted as we surf along and have fun. We “graduated” treatment two and a half years ago. Do we bid this stance and experience in group?

Sometimes, we’ve been surfing a while. Kind of a long while. And not much has changed. It seems sort of routine and monotonous. We’re getting bored with the ride, while we ride. Our attention is slowly dropping. And our footing seems secure. Always secure. We “graduated” from treatment two and a half years ago. Do we bid this in group?

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The technique for craving management called Urge Surfing always made sense to me.

I wish we would concretize and name the phenomenon and practices encapsulated in what I call “Recovery Surfing”. This would be a practice outside the limitations of the acute care model, and would specifically apply to long-term recovery management. It would promote mindfulness as a method and location for a kind of self-efficacy that expands well outside a problem-orientation, and even outside a well-being orientation.

As I see it, it’s a conscious practice connected to our stance toward, and the quality of, the space between, our self and our own recovery.

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In the Five Year Model of care for SUD severe, the main focus flips from “disease management” in the first two years to “recovery management” in years three through five.

The monograph on the Five Year Model (linked just above) includes an Appendix that describes a kind of group called a “Balint Group”, named after its founder. The Balint Group method was a major inspiration for me related to this topic of “recovery surfing”.