Rules For Women In Recovery: Part Two

Being a woman in recovery among other women in recovery is an experience unlike any other. We have to be there for each other in every way that we can. Here are some more rules for maintaining your recovery tribe and being the best sober sister.

Rule #3: Keep Each Other Honest

The HOW of recovery is this: honesty, willingness, and open-mindedness. Since we  are all individuals in recovery, it can be difficult to keep one another willing. We can offer each other reminders or avenues to be more open-minded, but the actual act of becoming open-minded is a personal journey.

Women in recovery do have a special role to play in helping keep each other honest. We can start by not participating in what is called “cosigning” another woman’s toxic or problematic behaviors by enabling them through dishonesty. Drawing the line of boundaries in friendships among women in recovery can be a challenge. “At the end of the day”, so it is said, women in recovery are there to help save each other’s lives. Though some behaviors are innocuous when it comes to honesty, the propensity for female alcoholics to be dishonest becomes a slippery slope resulting chronic lying, which could result in relapse.

Some of our best friendships will be our most honest friendships where we can speak honestly, express ourselves honestly, honestly call each other out, and be kept honest in return. The more open we can be with each other, the more open we can be with ourselves. The more open we can be with ourselves, the less power our addictions and struggles will have in trying to keep us away from our recovery and our lives.

Rule #4: Stick Together

Addiction, alcoholism, PTSD, and other mental health struggles, are all powerful foes- powerful enough to bring us to a “bottom” point in our lives and seek recovery. We hear descriptions in recovery about how our problems are always right behind us or “in the parking lot doing push ups” trying to grow as much as we are growing. Our lives can change for the worse in the instant of a poor decision to drink, use, or seek out problematic coping behaviors. Without support, without sticking together, we can quickly fall victim to our old ways of thinking and lose sight of all the magic which makes staying to the course of our recovery worth it.

Women’s recovery programs created by women, run by women, made for women, are key to helping women navigate the many layers of their world both internally and externally. Created with the female experience especially in mind, the RedCliff Recovery program has been designed to help women believe in hope, live in joy, and find the freedom they deserve. For more information on women’s wilderness, call us today: 801.370.2274