People can and do recover, and we must remember addiction is a disease. It's a chronic condition. Like other chronic conditions–asthma or diabetes, for instance–the goal for treatment and recovery supports should be progress, not perfection. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing's Demystifying Relapse series seeks to shift the conversation around substance use recurrence and treatment, urging a reevaluation of our views of people who use alcohol and other drugs, the nature of substance use and the barriers to recovery.
