Celebrating Recovery

Editor's Note: The following post was written by Michelle Simons, Opioid Settlement Funds Program Contractor for the Swampscott Health Department. She has a deep commitment to supporting individuals and communities affected by the opioid epidemic. Michelle is a person with lived experience, who also has a strong background in substance use disorder prevention and treatment initiatives. She has a Master’s in Counseling, as well as LADC I, CADC, and RCP-F certifications. In this contracted role, Michelle provides prevention, recovery, and community supports to Swampscott residents. In addition, she has ‘office hours’ and is available throughout each month to speak with residents about what resources and supports are available for residents and/or their loved ones. Learn more at https://www.swampscottma.gov/health/pages/program-contractor 

As a person in long term recovery (December 2000), I hope to make myself available to those seeking recovery, those in need of support sustaining their recovery, and those supporting others in recovery. I have learned a lot in the years of service in the addiction/recovery community, including how to uplift voices that occasionally get lost in the sea of clinical treatment. I'm a loyal advocate of the peer-to-peer recovery movement, knowing as a recovering person myself, I found recovery through others that had come before me. I also do not minimize the support I received from my parents, allies, and counselors, but in order to sustain my own recovery, it took a village of others that had similar experiences.  

People in recovery are some of the most honest, truthful, and real people in my life, and in this beautiful month of September when we celebrate our sisters and brothers in recovery, my only hope is to let the general public know that recovery IS very possible, of course not without some inside work. Many of us have been in the depths of despair in active addiction or alcoholism, in seemingly hopeless states, only to rise up from the rubble and come back better than we ever were. Being closer to death than we even knew when it was happening has us living in a state of gratitude for all the gifts, big and small. From a stable roof over our head, a job, a productive life in society, and a loving family of other recovering people we receive support from and we support, as the support is fluid and reciprocal.  

On the North Shore and across the state, I'm blessed to work with some tremendous people that spread this message in their day-to-day work and personal lives that there is hope. Recovery does not come easy, but it sure makes our lives easier when we live with these spiritual principles as our guide. Things like honesty, open-mindedness, accountability, hope, faith, and gratitude drive us every day to grow, thrive, and take inventory of ourselves in order to be better humans every second, every moment of every day, remembering that recovery is a lifelong endeavor requiring perseverance and a steadfast attention to the task!

Image from the SAMHSA 2025 National Recovery Month Toolkit