by Jim Hajny, Executive Director
November 17, 2025
One of the key tenants of the recovery journey is personal responsibility. Holding ourselves accountable for our words, actions, choices and even our thoughts. The recovery journey is about change. Early in recovery this can be very challenging, we are often confused, in emotional distress and not fully committed to changing our life. We may feel our life is not healthy or “good” but the idea of fully changing to something that is largely undefined can lead to fear, which in turn, can cause us to make the choice not to continue or even start the recovery journey. Recovery is a choice we make for ourselves. Taking one step onto the path of recovery, the first step or the 50,000 step is a choice to be healthy. To be our best self. At any time, we can choose to take a different path or even return to past unhealthy behaviors. Over the years I have taught this concept in various classes and sometimes I will get a response of, “It’s not my fault I have bipolar” (or some other mental health diagnosis). I tell them they are not their diagnosis, straightaway, no different than someone with diabetes. You are you, not your challenge. Then I explain that they are solely responsible for their recovery. The choices they make each day will dictate much of the outcomes. For example, having a written recovery plan is a choice and a tool in the recovery toolbox. Without a plan anything can happen. Without healthy tools to utilize we may turn to unhealthy coping which in turn leads us to negative consequences. We have to learn to hold ourselves accountable through honesty. For myself I found early in my recovery that I needed to do at least one thing everyday for my recovery in order be healthy. I need to have positive self-talk and be willing to examine my thoughts and actions towards others.
Personal responsibility in recovery means we are accountable for our actions towards others. Our words and behaviors can have both positive and negative results. We can live from a place of kindness and caring or from a place of selfishness and negativity. The healthier we are the more we will naturally gravitate towards the positive and a place of loving kindness. The amount of time we are in recovery is less important than the change and emotional growth we experience along the way. In other words, we may keep tracks of our “days” in recovery as marker of time but that does not equally translate into a healthy life if we are not evolving along the way.
