Being sober is the new trend!

Being sober is now trending!

Getting clean & sober went from being something you needed to do to save your life too now it's the cool thing to do. Now you might read this and say what's wrong with that? Well there is a good side to this and a very bad side! Strap your seat belts because this one is about to get really deep. 

Now let's think about this for a second. Recovery has always been anonymous for a reason. The main reason is to ensure one person's words or actions can not affect any of the programs in any manner or to ensure that not one person speaks for the actual program! This is a collective process that stays out of public affairs. There is a reason this is how the program was set up.

Once a person feels he or she speaks for the program or that they publically represent the program things can go wrong! One wrong word or action can make the whole program look bad or even detour a new comer coming into the program as well. Which by the way can end up killing a newcomer looking for help! 

Now that i have expressed that let's get into the good and bad side to being sober becoming cool or even trending.

The good side.

Now that recovery has become "cool" or "in" more people are publicly speaking about their struggles with addiction. By doing this the public is starting to realize addicts don't just look one way. We come from all walks of life. Rich or poor it doesn't matter addiction wants us all dead. So slowly you're starting to see a greater understanding of our disease from the public. Now obviously many are still ignorant and put addicts down but many are also realizing the reality of our disease. Many are becoming more compassionate. Also by people speaking up publically including celebrities many addicts still struggling are now encouraged to get clean and sober more often because it has become public topic. Now i could keep going but i think you get my point. There is a good side to this.

Now let's discuss the bad side. 

Again one of the main reasons all recovery programs have been anonymous is to ensure not one person speaks for or claims their beliefs stand for every single person in the program. The biggest problem i personally see today with sober being "cool" or the new trend, is people who develop huge following on social networks start to claim or put off vibes that their opinion is everyone's opinion in the rooms. Or that their beliefs or thoughts are king over everyone else's thoughts. The other problem i have seen is these social media sober advocates get 2-6 months clean and become recovery guru's. I personally i think until you have 2 years or more clean or sober you shouldn't act like you know recovery yet because it's toxic and under 2 years we really don't know shit yet! We're still getting our feet wet. 

When this happens ego goes to their head quickly and if you have watched the last 4-5 years 90% of them have relapsed. Now relapse is part of many people's story including mine but most of our relapses are kept behind closed doors or in the rooms. When it happens to these advocates it get bad!!!! Their die hard followers become lost. Many of them relapse because they see advocates relapse. A big problem i have also seen is when these public advocates relapse it deters newcomers from coming to the rooms because they start to think hey this huge public speaker can't keep his shit together so how can I.

The other bad thing about being sober becoming "cool" or 'the new trend" is most of these public recovery guru's have been linked to body brokering. How can a new comer trust people in recovery when the huge social media recovery advocate guru is body brokering addicts? I've talked to many newcomers and this makes them scared to come into the rooms because how do they know who to trust? I don't blame them.

From watching this online recovery shit show. If i didn't already know any better i wouldn't trust any of them either. 

At the end of the day who really knows if the good in this sober trending outweighs the bad? Personally i have seen it do way more harm them good but good thing it's just my opinion. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong. I guess really we need to see how this plays out for the next 5-10 years. Hopefully it turns into something that can help us stop losing our whole generation to heroin and carfentanil. 

I would love to know your thoughts. Drop some comments for me and let me know what you think.