Uncovery: The Power of Community to Heal TraumaSample

Recovery is for everyone. Because at its core, recovery is the gospel. You may never struggle with drug or alcohol addiction, anxiety or depression, or suicidal thoughts or ideation. But as a human, you probably still know what it’s like to struggle—and you may be called to help the entire world learn to see recovery differently. Anything that replaces Jesus as Lord of your life, keeps you from your family and loved ones, and fills your life with dis-ease (lack of ease) or hopelessness is your reason for recovery. And the reality is, all humans need recovery just like all sinners need a Savior.

• Addictions don’t always look the same. They can be chemical or behavioral, chosen or thrust upon you. Alcohol, drugs, sex, food, codependency, gambling, gaming, social media, shopping, offenses, exercise, politics—the list of potential addictions is endless. While struggling with sugar cravings might not seem to be as destructive as heroin or pornography, the neurological premise is the same.
• Mental health problems don’t always look the same either; the tricky part is, they are often the underlying causes of addiction. These problems can include depression, anxiety, fear, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, perfectionism, oppositional defiance, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, and more.
• Suicidal thoughts, tendencies, and ideation as well as other types of non-suicidal self-injury—such as cutting, self-mutilation, and other dissociative behavior—are technically mental health problems. However, they’re so complex that it’s helpful to place them into a separate category as people with no history of mental health problems can still experience them.

Maybe you saw yourself, a loved one, or someone you once loved in one of those descriptions. But whoever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever life experiences you’ve had, I invite you to consider that maybe, just maybe, recovery is meant for you.

The Uncovery goes deep, unearthing not only surface-level struggles but identifying the root causes beneath the struggle. Trauma, stress, abuse, neglect, isolation, loneliness, discrimination, poverty, injury, job loss, unchecked power, homelessness, and physiological or neurological predisposition are all ways in which we come to the ends of ourselves, by choice or by chance. And they do not discriminate.

Real recovery is a lifelong journey of discovery that reveals who we really are in Christ, who we always have been.