Every person who gets clean and sober makes at least some level of structural changes in their lives. By this I am talking about how they structure their time, where they live, where they go to work, who they spend their time with, and so on. Not all of these things will change for every recovering addict, but at least some structural changes must occur in order to change our lives.If you do not change the structure of your life when you get sober then you are probably setting yourself up for relapse. Recovery represents huge change.If you have gone to 12 step meetings you have probably heard people talk about changing people, places, and things. This refers to structural change. If we stay stuck in our old patterns we are not going to stay sober for long. We need structural change. They say you have to change everything in order to recover. That is what structural change is about. In my example, I had to get rid of some using friends, I had to get rid of a job that was no good for me, and I had to find some positive people to be around. These changes might be different for other people in recovery, but we will all have structural changes that need to be made.We can also look at those who relapse and gain more insight about why structural change is important. Those who fail in recovery did not make necessary changes. They held back in some wayperhaps by clinging to old friends, old behaviors, or some ritual from their past that leads them back to their drug of choice. Anyone who does not make it in recovery can clearly look back and say I did not make the necessary changes in order to recover. When we talk about structural changes in recovery, we are really talking about finding daily action that works for us and helps us to stay clean.So, is structure fundamental to recovery? Yes. We need to make big, deep, meaningful changes in our life and in our life structure in order to recover. ************* How does the addict follow through in early recovery? This is a stumbling point for many, and plenty of addicts and alcoholics struggle to get to that point of living in long term sobriety.So what is the key to making this transition? How does an addict move past the stage of chronic relapse? How do they break out of their cycle?To me the answer to this question is obvious: change.The addict has to change in recovery. Of course, everyone knows that the struggling addict or alcoholic has to change in order to get clean and sober. But what most people do not realize is that the recovering addict or alcoholic has to change, even while living in long term recovery, if they are to remain clean and sober.Why is this?The reason that recovery demands change is because getting sober is nothing like staying sober. Having 30 days clean is nothing like having 3 years clean. And neither is anything like having 10 years clean.When we first get clean, it is all we can do to hang on and make it through early recovery. We take support however we can get it. We tough it out and do what we can to make it to that one year mark.But later on, this no longer works. Why? Because we are changing and growing in recovery. It becomes less about support, and more about growth. We start to become the person we were supposed to be, before we got diverted with drugs and alcohol. And this transition demands a different approach than what we used at 30 days clean.Those who do not evolve and push themselves to grow in recovery end up relapsing. They refer to this as complacency.Again, the details are not what drives this problem. You can be in a 12 step program, or a religious based program, or some form of therapy, and fall into complacency. Or you can be in any of those programs and rise to the challenge and continue to grow in your recovery.This is how the addict follows through after early recovery and transitions into long term sobriety. They start living the life they were really meant to live, using their unique talents and skills to reach out to others in different ways. They become the person they were meant to be. For the religiously inclined, they are now doing Gods will, allowing themselves to be used as an instrument of God, to do his work. This might be volunteering in a homeless shelter, running a drug rehab, coaching troubled teens, or even rescuing animals. (Remember, the details dont matter so much..it is the action behind them that is important).

And we see a lot of complancy in recovery. Actually, one of the warning signs of a coming relapse. I can almost tell you when both of my ex's were headed for relapse.