I've been told that relapse is apart of recovery...?
It is as much a part of recovery as falling is a part of learning to walk. Dont beat yourself up. You can start forward again.
Thanks for the reply. I like what you said.
It's one of those hard lessons that seems to present itself to some of us, yeah. I envy those who never relapsed, but I also accept that my path differs from theirs. I wouldn't be the person I am now without having relapsed a few times, and I'm exactly in the place I should be in life, so for me, relapse was part of my journey. Hopefully it won't happen again if I work a good program, but I can't predict the future, so all I can do is try to make the next right move, then the next one, and trust that my higher power is working through me in the way it sees fit.
Relapse is a reality but certainly not a requirement. I've relapsed a few times, but not in over three years now. Believe it or not, relapse actually starts in the mind before one picks up a substance. That's not to say that thinking of using is a relapse though.
There is lapse and then there is relapse. I have heard that “recovery is not linear”.