Can We Use Facebook to Get Sober?
Recently, The Atlantic published an essay about one woman watching her friends fall into, and recover from, heroin addiction. While their sheer volume often drowns these stories out, this particular one was interesting.
What made this essay different from the other 10,000 we see everyday? Well, it looked at addiction and recovery through the lens of Facebook!
I use Facebook pretty much all day. I’m always peeking in to see if I was tagged in anything and what my friends are up to. Add Instagram, Twitter, etc. to the mix and it becomes plain to see that we’re surrounded 24/7 by social media!
But what if we could use Facebook, and all the others, to spread a message of hope and recovery? I mean, you’re probably reading this article right now because you saw it on social media!
So, how can we, as women in recovery, use social media for more than a five-minute distraction?
Social Media and Active Addiction
It’s funny how accurate The Atlantic’s essay was. They talk about how friends and family of addicts can gauge someone’s addiction through their activity on social media.
That is 100% my story! I can’t tell you how many times I deactivated my Facebook when I was getting high. My Myspace and LiveJournal (I’m dating myself, I know!) fell out of use when I was drinking. Concerned comments would pile up and give me even more guilt.
There’s the other side, too. I remember posting countless pictures of friends and myself playing beer pong or at a party with our white girl wasted faces.
Classic teenager and young adult move, right? Except, for me, these “fun” pictures were less a chronicle of youthful mistakes and more snapshots of my active addiction.
Facebook and Sobriety
And then I started trying to get sober. Suddenly, Facebook became less terrifying. Rather than hiding from concerned friends’ messages, I could post how great life was! Of course, relapse would send me running from the computer.
The Atlantic’s article touches upon this very idea. The author writes about seeing her addict friends post things like “Today is ninety days!!” I’m pretty sure I made that exact same post…more than once!
This is where Facebook, and the rest of the social media family, can become useful, and even indispensible, to sobriety.
Imagine if you lived in a small town and didn’t have access to around the clock meetings. Imagine it’s two a.m., you can’t sleep, and all you can think of is drinking. What’s a girl to do?
Simple! You can hop on Facebook and instantly connect to millions of other recovering addicts and alcoholics. You can get support, encouragement, and general positive messages no matter the time or location.
That sounds pretty awesome to me!
Let’s Spread a Message of Hope!
Can we all agree, right here and right now, to start a new trend? Let’s switch from liking pictures and status to liking God and our sisters in recovery!
Let’s start using Facebook to spread a message of hope and recovery!