You are strong.
By Chinyere Ibeh — Written on Sep 10, 2020
People with a substance addiction know that the road to recovery isn't always straightforward. There are days when it feels easier to give up — on those days, look to these recovery quotes to give yourself the mental strength to keep going.
Recovery is sometimes filled with relapses and fallbacks, but don't let that discourage you. Recovery is a long process and the change doesn’t change overnight, but each moment that you remain substance-free is a win.
Here are 30 recovery quotes that will keep you mentally strong to move forward:
1. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius
2. “Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.” — Brittany Burgunder
3. “One small step is worth more than a thousand steps planned.” — Unknown
4. “Recovery is not a race. You don’t have to feel guilty if it takes you longer than you thought it would.” Anonymous
5. “Remember that just because you hit bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.” — Robert Downey Jr.
6. “Recovery is something that you have to work on every single day and it’s something that doesn’t get a day off.” — Demi Lovato
7. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life” — J. K. Rowling
8. “When everything seems like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top.” — Anonymous
9. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” — Japanese proverb
10. “I really mean when I say my biggest fear in early recovery was that I would never have fun again. The beautiful truth is that recovery has given me freedom and the confidence to go out in the world and leave my own mark.” — Tom Stoddart
11. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on — it is going on when you don’t have strength.” — Napoléon Bonaparte
12. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain
13. “Your best days are ahead of you. The movie starts when the guy gets sober and puts his life back together; it doesn’t end there.” — Bucky Sinister
14. “In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” — Drew Barrymore
15. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” — Robert Collier
16. “If things go wrong, don’t go with them.” — Roger Babson
17. “I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you’ve done.” — Robert Downey Jr.
18. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
19. “Nobody stay recovered unless the life they have created is more rewarding and satisfying than the one they left behind.” — Anne Fletcher
20. “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” — Zen proverb
21. “Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start over and make a new ending.” — Chico Xavier
22. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” — George Addair
23. “The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the person perfected without trials.” — Chinese proverb
24. “You have to break down before you can breakthrough.” — Marilyn Ferguson
25. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” — Oprah Winfrey
26. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
27. “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” — Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
28. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” — Babe Ruth
29. “You will face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle.” — Shannon L. Adler
30. “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” — George Eliot
31. “My worst days in rehab are better than my best days in relapse.” — Kate Le Page
32. “No matter what the situation, remind yourself, I have a choice” — Deepak Chopra
33. "Don’t let the past steal your present." — Terri Guillemets
34. "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
35. “One of the hardest things was learning that I was worth recovery.”— Demi Lovato
Drug and alcohol addiction is incredibly common.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reports that approximately 20.3 million people above the age of 12 have suffered from a substance use disorder in the past year. According to SAMHSA’s 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, close to 2 million people of the same age bracket have suffered from opioid use disorders and 14.8 million from alcohol use disorders.
Misusing alcohol and other drugs can be both detrimental to your immediate and long-term physical, emotional, and mental health.
Alcohol and drug addiction is something to take seriously, although often overlooked. Anyone of any race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender can suffer from alcohol and drug addiction. Recovering from an addiction is more than just abstaining from drugs or alcohol. It’s about investigating the internal framework of your brain, rewiring your thought patterns, and actively changing behaviors over a long period of time.
If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction, there are resources to get help.
The process of recovery is not linear, but the first step to getting better is asking for help. For more information, referrals to local treatment facilities and support groups, and relevant links, visit SAMHSA’s website. If you’d like to join a recovery support group, you can locate the nearest Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings near you. Or you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-799-7233, which is a free 24/7 confidential information service in both English and Spanish. For TTY, or if you’re unable to speak safely, call 1-800-487-4889.
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Chinyere (pronounced sha-near-ruh) is a writer who covers entertainment and pop culture news, along with the zodiac.