In her book, Lit, the author Mary Karr tells of her slide into addiction and her move into recovery. There is much enjoyable writing in this book. One quote that particularly caught me, "Being who you are is not a diagnosis." In our culture we diagnose addiction, alcoholism, chemical dependency etc. etc. And we should diagnose them. They are chronic diseases which can lead to death.
But I've always resisted the required introduction in self help groups of "I'm Penny and I'm an alcoholic." That makes me my diagnosis....Webster "the process of deciding the nature of the diseased condition" That makes me my disease. It may be a fine point but I prefer the second definition of "diagnosis" in Webster's dictionary---"a careful investigation of the facts to determine the nature of the thing." Yes-that was a major part of my recovery. "A careful investigation of the facts to determine the nature of the thing." And the investigation was that I was drinking way too much and it was leading me to be a person I did not want to be. It was getting in the way of what I wanted to do with my life.
"Being who I am" is in recovery---not the perfect recovery as defined by self help groups but no longer interfering with who I want to be. "In recovery" is not a diagnosis.
"In recovery" for me means placing my recovery in my relationship with God--living my life as a child of God---not "perfectly" by a long shot---but "being who I am" in this relationship changed everything.
Who are you?
Blessings-Penny
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