Can you believe we’re already in the heart of September? Happy fall. Happy football. Happy pumpkin spiced everything. Happy National Recovery Month, most importantly.

This month we’re celebrating recovery from opioid addiction. We’re also celebrating one of our New Season employees who recently had the term, “recovery discrimination,” published in the Urban Dictionary. Christopher Lopez, the community outreach counselor at the San Antonio Treatment Center, coined the term to describe negatively judging someone’s chosen form of addiction treatment.

In recognition of Lopez’s astuteness, we’re taking a deep dive into what we’ve sourced as the top addiction recovery terms. Here’s our list; what’s on yours?

Disease Concept: after several decades of scientific research, addiction is now viewed as a disease of the body and mind. The original AA Big Book had an introduction by Dr. William Duncan Silkworth who described the addiction to alcohol as an allergy. In this regard, the disease concept takes the role of weakness out of the picture. It allows people suffering from addiction to accept that they have a medical problem that must be addressed and that it is not just about being a bad person.

Recovery: what is implied by doing the steps and the program. If we take the path followed by those who came before us, then there is a good chance that a person will gain or regain his or her sense of self again, rebuild family ties or create new ones and learn to live in a manner that is healthy, life affirming and self productive. Profound healing can take place in the rooms. William White refers to it as “reaching back and reaching forward,” as it frees us from past behaviors with understanding the role it played in our present development, while reaching forward toward the future and the desire to continue to grow as a human being.

Family recovery: the belief that addiction is a family disease. According to White’s studies, family recovery entails three dimensions: healing family members, that achieving recovery is dependent upon setting healthy boundaries, and developing healthy family systems (adult intimacy needs, parent-child and sibling relationships). Research demonstrates that individual recovery must take place before family recovery can occur.

Relapse: when one has detoxed from drugs, alcohol or other addictive substances and then returns to using again.

Medication-Assisted Treatment: Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), including opioid treatment programs (OTP), combines behavioral therapy and medications to treat substance use disorders.

Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Outpatient treatment: treatment costs less than residential or inpatient treatment and often is more suitable for people with jobs or extensive social supports. In many outpatient programs, group counseling can be a major component. Some outpatient programs are also designed to treat patients with medical or other mental health problems in addition to their drug disorders.

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Recovery discrimination: when someone discriminates against another person in addiction recovery because that person’s recovery is not the same; i.e., “I am in a 12-step program and that is the only true recovery… Methadone is not recovery.”

Source: Urban Dictionary

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): an organization with the mission to advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction, and to apply that knowledge to improve individual and public health.

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

What are some terms that you think should be added to this list of key terms?