Recovery > Sobriety
why true healing goes beyond just staying sober
Let me be honest with you.
I used to think sobriety was the finish line.
I thought if I could just stop drinking, stop numbing, stop self-destructing, I’d be good. Healed. Whole. Finally “fixed.” But I wasn’t.
In fact, I was still angry. Still anxious. Still lost in a mess of shame and confusion and grief that I’d buried for years.
And no one told me this part, you can be sober and still be suffering.
I need more than sobriety.
I need recovery.
Recovery is different. It’s deeper. Sobriety is about what you take away. Recovery is about what you build.
Recovery helped me:
Face the trauma I tried to drink and use away.
Reclaim the woman God created me to be.
Heal from shame, not just hide it.
Finally start living instead of just avoiding death.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
You can be sober and still feel stuck.
You can stop drinking and still feel like you’re drowning.
You can count your sober days and still feel unworthy of love.
But you don’t have to stay there.
If you’re there right now, here’s what I want you to know:
1. You’re not broken because you’re struggling.
Sobriety doesn’t erase pain. It just removes the numbing. What comes next: the real work is hard, but it’s holy.
2. Healing takes time.
And that’s okay. There’s no gold star for getting it all right quickly. What matters is that you keep showing up.
3. You were made for more.
God didn’t pull you out of the pit just to have you survive. He wants you to live. Fully, freely, joyfully.
We are still on the journey.
Some days are messy.
Some days we might grieve the years we lost.
But we’ve also never been freer. Never more who we are meant to be. We are becoming.
That’s what recovery has given me. Not perfection, but peace.
Not just sobriety, but purpose.
Confidence.
If you’re feeling like sobriety isn’t enough…
Welcome to the circle.
Not the version of you that has it all figured out, but the real you.
The one who’s sober but still aching.
The one who shows up even when it’s hard.
The one who knows deep down there has to be more than this.
You’re not alone. Let’s talk about it. Let’s heal together.
Stick around.
Over the next several months, I’ll be sharing more about what recovery is (and I’ve got a new book in the works that is centered on this idea too). Not just sobriety, but the fullness of the recovery journey for our minds, bodies, emotions, and spirits.
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How is your journey illuminating more to the recovery road?
What does this discussion bring up for you?
Caroline Beidler, MSW, is an author, speaker, and Managing Editor of Recovery.com, where she combines expert guidance with research to help people find the best path to healing and treatment. Her next book, When You Love Someone in Recovery: A Hopeful Guide for Understanding Addiction, is coming Spring 2026 with Nelson Books. Drawing from her own recovery journey through addiction, mental health challenges, and trauma, along with training as a clinical mental health provider and addiction recovery expert, Caroline is passionate about guiding you into seasons of greater healing. Learn more about her books here.
Where I volunteer, we always say "You are in recovery when you say you are", and while that seems fairly radical to say, it's fairly true. Recovery being a chosen process, not a given set of rules, is accurate. Indeed it's the harder work for many people-What do I do now that I am no longer in active addiction?
Damn right.
Sobriety lit the match.
But recovery is where the fire burns through the bullshit.
Where we stop just surviving and start becoming.
I didn’t need to be “fixed.”
I needed to be found.
Buried under decades of numbing, silence, duty, and pretending.
Recovery isn’t a destination it’s a forge.
It tears. It tempers.
It softens us into truth and steels us for purpose.
So if you’re here? Sober but still aching?
You’re not lost. You’re becoming.
And we’ve been waiting for you by the fire.
Welcome home.
Let’s rise. Together.