Personal Responsibility Equals Independence

According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) there are 10 essential components to mental health or substance abuse recovery. One of these 10 essential components is responsibility.
Thinking about responsibility and the upcoming Independence Day celebrations that will be held in various parts of the country this month has led me to draw some parallels between the two. The first parallel I draw is the importance taking responsibility, personal responsibility, in both the independence of this country and in our own Recovery. Recovery is possible for each and every individual and taking personal responsibility for our Recovery builds the strength needed to recover.
I refer to this as a “personal responsibility” because each and every individual who signed the Declaration of Independence, 56 individuals in total, knew that there was a possibility that they could lose everything they had ever worked for; in fact, they could have even lost their lives simply because they signed that piece of paper. But, what an important piece of paper!
Some time ago, I received an email about the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The email talked about the things that happened in the lives of those individuals after they decided to take a chance, a chance to build a country and make that country different than anywhere else. As I was beginning this article I searched to find the information I had read before. I found it but along with it I found some credible information that said only part of the story I was looking for was true.
For a moment, I thought about trying to find another idea to reference for my article, but then decided I would leave the reference as is. The importance, I decided, was not in whether negative things had happened to those who signed the Declaration of Independence but rather in the risk those 56 individuals took when they made the decision to sign. They all knew it could cause them to lose their life. They all knew that signing could even risk the lives of their families and friends. They signed anyway.
Recovery also poses risks to those brave enough to choose that path. For some, Recovery means losing places they’re used to going, people they know and trust, and losing those things that they may find comforting. But those who brave the uncharted waters and begin to work on their Recovery will learn that just as the foundation the Declaration of Independence gave freedom to this country laying the foundation with Recovery by taking that personal responsibility creates new found freedom to the individual’s soul.