Molière famously said, “It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” Accountability is a crucial component of leading a full and well-rounded life. Accountability in recovery can be vital because it shows us that we are growing and expanding in our mission to live a life beyond what we could have ever imagined while in active addiction. The good news is that there are many ways in which we can remain accountable in recovery, both to ourselves and to those around us.
The Importance of Accountability in Recovery
So, what exactly does it mean to be accountable? It means that we take responsibility for our actions. In recovery, this can be a scary proposition. Why? This is because, in active addiction, we have most likely caused a lot of damage and harmed many people. We need to take responsibility for that. Also, we need to do our best to make those situations right.
Now, will we be able to fix all of the problems that we created while in active addiction? Will we be able to gain forgiveness from everyone we harmed? The answer is “probably not,” and that is okay. The key is that we have to be willing to do what it takes to right our wrongs. If it doesn’t turn out how we hoped, or if people are unwilling to forgive us, we have to be able to accept that, knowing that we truly did our best.
Better Understanding Addiction
Millions of people struggle with addiction every day. This includes people struggling with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and substance use disorder (SUD).
Take AUD, for example. According to Alcohol Use Disorder: Screening, Evaluation, and Management, by Doctors Nehring, Chen, and Freeman, “Alcohol is the most commonly used substance in the United States, with 84% of people 18 and older reporting lifetime use, according to data from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health…. AUD also significantly impacts the healthcare system, contributing to over 200,000 hospitalizations annually and 7.4% of emergency room visits. About 29.5 million people 12 and over have AUD in the United States; however, only 7.6% of this population receive treatment.”
SUD has similar staggering use statistics. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), “In 2020, the percentage of people age 12 and over who needed treatment for illicit drug use and who received such treatment at a specialty facility was less than 20% for people living in all geographic locations. The hospitalization rate for illnesses related to opioid use doubled overall and across all income groups…. Overall, the rate of drug overdose deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids increased fourfold, from 0.98 per 100,000 population in 1999 to 4.1 per 100,000 population in 2020. People ages 45-64 experienced a nearly fivefold increase.”
The Signs and Symptoms of Addiction
Now, many people in active addiction let accountability drop to the wayside. This is where the accountability of family and close friends can come in handy. These loved ones can be vigilant and recognize the signs and symptoms of addiction even if the individual cannot or will not. Of course, for this to be effective, they must know what signs and symptoms to look out for. The following are just a few of those signs and symptoms:
- Struggles with sleep cycles, including sleeping too much and not sleeping enough (insomnia)
- Negative changes in appetite (excessive weight gain and weight loss)
- Losing interest in activities once enjoyed
- Isolating away from loved ones
- Feeling overly anxious and depressed
- Feeling nervous when not drinking or using
- Overspending on alcohol and/or substances
- Struggles at work or school
- Feeling hopeless, helpless, and worthless
- Otherwise unexplained physical ailments, such as gastrointestinal problems and headaches
- Mood swings
- Expressing feelings of self-harm or wanting to harm others
- Having suicidal ideations
As you can see, these symptoms can be serious. This is because the disease of addiction is serious, and, yes, it is a disease. Many people are under the misconception that addiction is some type of moral failing or “choice.” This is a fallacy, as well as a stigma. The reality is that most medical professionals now agree that addiction has more in common with other chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes than it does with a “choice.” Also, like other diseases, people struggling with addiction need to heal at the cellular level.
What Does It Mean to Heal at the Cellular Level?
Now, what does it mean to heal at the cellular level? It ultimately means to heal all aspects of the capital “S” Self — the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It is about holistic or “interconnected” recovery. One cannot fully recover without addressing all four of these components. For example, we cannot fully heal mentally if we remain emotionally unstable, and we cannot heal emotionally if we are not well physically.
Healing at the cellular level also means that we must heal the root/core causes of our problems. With addiction, our problem is not the drink or the drug directly; rather, it is the reason that we take the drink or the drug in the first place. It is the motivation that leads to negative behaviors that we need to address.
So, how do we heal at the cellular level? When it comes to recovery, we must connect with a treatment center that holds the same values that we do. This treatment center must also focus on individualized and comprehensive addiction care. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, as there are bad actors out there that put their financial bottom line over their clients’ well-being. They often only offer overarching “one-note” recovery plans, which rarely work. No, to heal at the cellular level, we must receive individual attention.
Interventions: The Benefits of Boundaries
One way to instill accountability in a loved one is to stage an intervention. An intervention is when the family and close friends sit the individual struggling down and explain to them that they need help. It is also where boundaries are set that force an individual to be accountable for their own actions.
Now, setting these boundaries can be difficult. It can often feel punitive. However, it is important to remember that these boundaries aren’t meant to punish but rather to save a loved one’s life. After all, addiction recovery can be life and death. These difficult tasks are also why hiring a professional interventionist is critical for making the process run smoothly. Here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab™, we are proud to employ professional interventionists who are licensed to work in all 50 states.
A skilled interventionist can help get a loved one to say “yes” to recovery. When this happens, the interventionist is prepared to get them directly to rehab, which often first involves a safe and secure detox.
Early Accountability in Recovery: A Safe and Secure Detox
When it comes to recovery, one must be accountable for their own health and well-being. This starts with a safe and secure detox that is going to ensure that they are not injured during the process. Many people don’t realize that detoxing on one’s own can be very dangerous (especially with alcohol). It can even be deadly.
Detoxing from alcohol on your own can lead to something called alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS). According to the peer-reviewed journal Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, “The alcohol withdrawal syndrome is a well‐known condition occurring after intentional or unintentional abrupt cessation of heavy/constant drinking in patients suffering from alcohol use disorders (AUDs). AUDs are common in neurological departments with patients admitted for coma, epileptic seizures, dementia, polyneuropathy, and gait disturbances. Nonetheless, diagnosis and treatment are often delayed until dramatic symptoms occur.” Dangers like this are why working with professionals in recovery is so important.
Accountability in Recovery: Working With Professionals
Many people try to go through the whole recovery process on their own. Now, as previously mentioned, not only is this dangerous, but it can be unnecessarily uncomfortable. There are many professionals who can help make the recovery process run as smoothly as possible. This includes addiction specialists, medical professionals, counselors, and recovery guides. It is also important to work with professional dieticians, nutritionists, and naturopathic doctors.
The need for a focus on nutrition is critical in recovery because it is often severely lacking in active addiction. According to the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition Reviews, “[S]ubstance use can compromise the user’s nutrition and greatly affect their dietary habits. In general, this population has a disrupted and chaotic lifestyle, and money is usually spent on drugs rather than on food. This severely affects the user’s food intake, which eventually leads to undernutrition.” Professional dieticians can help get this nutrition back on track, and they can also help compose a healthy and effective exercise routine. There is also evidence that exercise can be an exceptional substitute for alcohol and substance use.
According to the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, “Under some conditions, exercise increases measures of euphoria and well-being in human populations, like that of abused drugs. In laboratory animals, the positive affective states of exercise are typically examined in the conditioned place preference procedure, an assay in which a stimulus is repeatedly paired with a distinct environment. If the animal later expresses a preference for the paired environment over a control environment, then one may assume that the experimental manipulation produced a positive affective state in that animal.” However, one should always consult with a professional, as there have been cases where individuals end up with a condition known as exercise addiction.
Accountability in Recovery: Connecting With Peers
Just as important as working with recovery professionals is working with recovery peers. These are individuals who have also gone through active addiction and may be going through recovery themselves. These are the people who can help to offer understanding and a sense of belonging. Ultimately, connecting with other people in recovery can make you feel less alone. They can also help to create accountability. It can be helpful to see what has worked and what continues to work for other people in recovery.
Working with others in recovery has also been shown to greatly reduce the potential for a relapse. This is because having others available to talk to when times get tough is critical. This is why having a full and active “sober network” can be so beneficial. Some of the best places to meet and connect with others in recovery are in community groups and at community meetings, such as 12-Step recovery meetings.
A Focus on Recovery Groups and Meetings
Roughly 90 years ago, two men who were struggling with addiction got together and determined that there were two things that they needed to do to get and stay sober. One was to find a Higher Power greater than themselves that they could rely upon. Two, was to work with other people who needed help in their recovery. These two men were Bill Wilson and Robert Holbrook Smith, the cofounders of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), a program that has gone on to help millions of people and their families recover from addiction.
There are many benefits to 12-Step recovery. According to the peer-reviewed journal Social Work in Public Health, “There are many paths to recovery from alcohol and SUDs, and one that has been travelled by many and is associated with positive long-term outcomes is involvement in 12-Step and mutual/self-help groups. Such groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Cocaine Anonymous (CA), and several others, have served as the primary, if not only, source of behavior change for many, as adjuncts to formal treatment, or as a form of continuing care and community support following treatment. These groups are highly accessible and are available at no cost in communities throughout the world….”
However, it is also important to understand that 12-Step recovery need not be the only form of treatment that one uses. Actually, 12-Step recovery works significantly better when individuals are also engaged with other modalities like experiential therapy, holistic healing methods like yoga, and evidence-based therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and ketamine-assisted therapy (KAP).
The Benefits of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy
Many people have pushed against KAP because they are under the misconception that ketamine can only be used as an illicit substance. This is simply not the case. There have been many studies that show the efficacy of KAP for instances of mental illness and addiction.
The key to having positive outcomes with KAP is to work with a professional and stay on course. According to the Journal of Pain Research, “Overall, it appears that on a microscopic scale, synaptic excitation and neuronal structural plasticity afforded from ketamine administration play a significant role in the medication’s rapid and robust effectiveness in chronic mental health conditions, including substance use disorders and chronic pain. Unfortunately, symptom reductions are frequently transient, typically lasting 4–7 days…. One possible aid in prolonging ketamine’s effects is psychotherapy.” Mindfulness meditation can also work very well alongside KAP.
Staying Accountable for Yourself: Mindfulness Meditation
Meditation is an ideal way to create a sense of accountability. This is because it can clear all of the unnecessary and distracting thoughts away. This allows you to focus on what is most important – your recovery.
Mindfulness meditation also offers a myriad of other benefits for recovery. According to the International Quarterly Journal of Research in Ayurveda (AYU), “During the process of meditation, accumulated stresses are removed, energy is increased, and health is positively affected overall. Research has confirmed a myriad of health benefits associated with the practice of meditation. These include stress reduction, decreased anxiety, decreased depression, reduction in pain (both physical and psychological), improved memory, and increased efficiency.”
Ultimately, the key to a healthy recovery is finding the combinations of modalities that work for you and then sticking to them. This is how to heal at the cellular level.
Healing at the Cellular Level With Exclusive Hawaii Rehab™
Here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab™, we believe in long-term success over short-term “fixes.” That is why all of our recovery plans focus on the future, including instilling a sense of accountability.
If you are thinking about recovery, then you are already taking a positive step toward accountability. There is no time to wait. You can do this! We can help.
Accountability is a critical part of a healthy and well-balanced recovery. However, many people in early recovery may not know what accountability looks like, nor which modalities can help them establish it most effectively. The good news is that there are many effective methods and programs that can help one establish healthy accountability in recovery. If you feel like you or a loved one is struggling with issues of addiction, mental illness, or both, we can help get you on the right road to recovery right away. You don’t have to go through this process alone. For more information about establishing accountability, please reach out to Exclusive Hawaii Rehab™ today at (808) 775-0200.
