It’s been an insane two weeks, but I’m back today with some big news. Read along.

Welcome to National Recovery Month

It’s September, which means it’s National Recovery Month, a month the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration uses to raise awareness around issues of recovery and to celebrate those working through their own sobriety. And if you’ve read my books, you know I have a vested interest in National Recovery Month. In fact, this month marks my 7-year anniversary of being un-drunk.

I’m a word nerd, and so I love the word recovery. It carries the connotation of reclaiming, of finding, of taking something back. In addiction circles (wether to booze, sex, shopping, or social media), we use the term as a sort of shorthand. Before the addiction, we were our truest selves, and we aim to recover what’s been lost to addiction.

In my latest book, The Book of Waking Up, I examine recovery as a mode of waking from our addictions (or the attachments in our lives) and waking to the adoration of something bigger—the Divine Love. What do I mean? I wrote:

Over the years, theologians, priests, pastors, and spiritual directors have preached, written, and opined about what constitutes a disordered attachment, an [affection] we place over our desire for divine [afection].⁠ I might sum up much of that opinion this way: when we enter into longterm relationships with any coping mechanism in an attempt to silence… pain or to numb ourselves to it… we’re nursing an affection for lesser loves. We’re adoring the creation instead of the Creator.
Addiction: What is it but misplaced adoration.

Recovery, as I see it, is not simply about detaching yourself from some substance. It’s about waking to the realization that you adore something—booze, boobs, the roulette wheel—that will never adore you in return. It’s about learning to adore something bigger, something Divine, something salvific.

This month, I’m inviting you to join me in celebrating National Recovery Month (perhaps, National Adoration Month). Identify that coping mechanism that’s crept into your life. See the ways you elevate it, adore it, think it will numb your pain. Note how hollow it is, how potentially destructive, how pain-inducing. Then, grab a copy of The Book of Waking Up, Coming Clean, or any other great recovery book, and learn how to find lasting sobriety that’s rooted in something more Divine.

Are you tired of disordered attachment? Follow along.

Two Quick Things You Can do to Kick Off National Recovery Month:

(1) Pick up a copy of The Book of Waking Up for you and a friend;

(2) Shoot me an email letting me know your thought about addiction as misplaced adoration.

If you want to invite a friend to participate please share this piece with a friend or 10 (change the email address in the form). Ask them to subscribe and follow along this September. Start a discussion with them about recovery (and yes, we’ll return to recovery from social media this month). See what happens.