Look - the first thing that you need to understand, is that recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism, is something totally separate from treating these addictions.

The treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction usually involves, the typically, three to six week period you spend at a professional treatment center like rehab - where you'll receive ongoing treatment, counselling and spend time detoxing, so that by the time you leave you'll have some clean time under your belt and be equipped to begin a new (hopefully) drug or alcohol free life for yourself.

Recovery is all about what happens after you've left treatment/rehab - in other words it's everything you do from then on to make sure you stay on track and don't relapse. So recovery is pretty much about the rest of your life then - and so one of the reasons I believe relapse rates are often high - is because addicts see treatment as the finishing line, when in fact its only the beginning.

So alcoholism recovery and recovery from drug addiction is all about what you do on an ongoing, hopefully daily basis, to ensure you don't get lured back to a life of drink or drugs.

It's the spiritual program you follow and/or NA/AA meetings you regularly attend, dealing with your 'baggage' so that it doesn't become an excuse again to drink or use drugs, making the right kind of friends and staying away at all costs from old drinking and using buddies, having a mentor you can call when you're having a bad day …

So in other words - recovery is all about taking continuous action and forming new life affirming habits that will leave the destructive addict part of you a thing of history - and bring to the fore your warrior, spirited self that will flourish despite what life may throw at you.

Treatment should therefore be seen as the first step on the road to recovery - and not the finishing line itself. Yes there are people that overcome their addictions without going to rehab - but they also do it by making major changes to their lives and building new habits that take continuous work and effort.

So when trying to understand alcohol addiction recovery and drug addiction recovery - remember its something you do and work at for the rest of your life. It can be hard at the beginning, but with time does become much easier - and soon your life will be unrecognisable from the nightmare it was.