10 Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery

Being a woman in recovery, you know that life is like a billion times better than when you were in active addiction. So, making a list of 10 awesome things about being a woman in recovery was quite an easy undertaking.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Having self-respect

No more walk of shame after a black-out hook-up, no more regretting those hook ups or deeds we did in order to get our drink or drug of choice.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Making money legitimately  

Something unfortunately common to women who used to be in active addiction is the ways in which we supported our habit. Often it was stealing, robbing, stripping and even prostituting ourselves. Being a woman in recovery means that we don’t have to live that way any longer. We can get decent, honest jobs and hold our heads high.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Having money

Being a woman in recovery means that we can go shopping, go out to eat, take trips – basically do all the things we like and simply enjoy ourselves. We are no longer scraping together what little money we can in order to feed our habit. When I was using, my whole day and basically my whole life revolved around getting and using drugs. There was no quality of life.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Having good female friends

Fostering friendships with good, trustworthy women is important for our self-esteem and overall health and well-being. Being in recovery means that we get to meet other strong women in recovery, which is good, in general; and great for our recovery, too.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Being independent

Or at least the ability to gain independence. No longer are we dependent on a man for money, drugs, etc.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Better skin

Besides the lack of proper nutrition and hygiene in our active addiction, which led us to neglect our health and appearance, every drug also has its own specific effects that take a toll on our outward appearance.

Alcohol causes bloating and blotchiness.

If we were using cocaine, we might have experienced ‘cocaine bugs’ or ‘snow bugs’ – a crawling sensation under the skin that led to picking at our skin until it bled. Because of this, our faces had sores, scratches, and scars.

If it was meth we used, we probably had severe acne and gaping sores from picking at our faces. This would have led to infections and scarring – basically an overall diseased look.

Heroin and other opiate-users have an overall pale complexion with tell-tale dark circles under the eyes.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Healthy body

I know that when I got clean, I got my awesome curves back. After years of drug use, I was weighing in at 20 pounds less than what is healthy for my height and body type. I had been merely surviving on fluids; in fact, I wasn’t able to eat solid foods when I first got to treatment.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Not being “that girl”

You know the one – the sloppy, gross, annoying girl. In our active addiction, we thought we were “fun” and “the life of the party” when in reality, we were a hot mess and got on a lot of people’s nerves. Now, we are in control of our actions and can carry ourselves with dignity. We can be confident that we really are being charming in conversation; that people are laughing with us, not at us.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Feel better

Not just emotionally and psychologically do we feel better, we are also feeling better physically due to all that clean, healthy living.

Awesome Things About Being a Woman in Recovery: Focusing on career and family

Many women who are already moms when they come into the program have a lot to “clean up” when it comes to healing their relationship with their spouses and children. And if this is not the case, being a woman in recovery means that you can now have goals and aspirations that you never gave yourself the chance before. You can focus on having a career and family and whatever else that you choose.

If you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call toll-free 1-800-777-9588.