Quotes and sayings to inspire addiction recovery and sobriety

Recovery from addiction, whether it be alcohol, drug or any behavioural addiction, can be one of the most challenging journeys of your life. Recovery is a daily battle requiring focus, determination, support and hope.

Overcoming the all-consuming power of addiction is no easy feat. You will often most likely awake to good days, or days filled with temptation and struggle. Somedays, you might lack the motivation to continue to fight.

At Nightingale Hospital, we would like to wish our current and ex-patients, and those recovering from addiction beyond our network, continued strength in your recovery.

On those more difficult days of recovery, we hope that the below quotes and sayings can help you harness your power, and keep you on the road to sobriety. 

Quotes and sayings for addiction recovery and sobriety

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan

“Recovery is about progression, not perfection.” – Unknown

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“One of the hardest things was learning that I was worth recovery.” – Demi Lovato

“You have to break down before you can breakthrough.” – Marilyn Ferguson

“The goal isn’t to be sober. The goal is to love yourself so much that you don’t need to drink.” – Anonymous

“Life is a series of relapses and recoveries.” – George Ade

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb

“Recovery is taking all twelve steps…over and over and over and over…” – Toni Sorenson

“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” – Confucius

“Addiction denied is recovery delayed.”- Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“First, you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Your addiction is not you, but it feels like you because you’ve spent so much intimate time together.” – Toni Sorenson

“I’m not telling you it is going to be easy. I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it!” – Anonymous

“I am not defined by my relapses, but by my decision to remain in recovery despite them.” – Anonymous

“Remember that just because you hit bottom doesn’t mean you have to stay there.” – Robert Downey Jr.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Before you can break out of prison, you must realise you are locked up.” – Anonymous

“If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.” – Benjamin Alire Sáenz

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein

“What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.” – Hecato

“What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.” – Albert Camus

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”– C.S. Lewis

‘Hope is a good thing, maybe even the best of things, and good things never die.’ – Stephen King

“Every experience in your life is being orchestrated to teach you something you need to know to move forward.” – Brian Tracy

“Every noble work is at first impossible.” – Thomas Carlyle

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Get help for drug and alcohol addiction at Nightingale Hospital

We offer expert treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in central London.

Our approach to treating all addictions combines individualised addiction treatment programmes, with therapies that are based on current clinical evidence. Patients can seek help for their addiction at Nightingale Hospital in an inpatient, day patient or outpatient setting.

Our addiction treatment multidisciplinary team (MDT) consists of leading consultant psychiatrists, nurses and therapists who are all specially trained in addiction. They are supported by clinical psychologists, trauma therapists, counselling psychologists and psychotherapists ensuring that we deliver specialised, evidence-based treatments.

Our expert team is highly skilled in treating all addictions, such as alcohol addiction, drug addiction (including amphetamine, benzodiazepine, cannabis, cocaine, codeine, ecstasy, heroin, inhalants, opiates and prescription drug addictions) and behavioural addictions (such as technology, gambling, sex and love, co-dependency).

Numerous factors are known to contribute to sustained recovery. Some people do recover from addiction with no professional treatment, and there is not only one path. However, the evidence is clear, professional treatment works and makes it more likely that people begin recovery and continue in recovery.

Our inpatient addiction treatment is provided via two separate modalities:

• 28-day addiction treatment rehabilitation programme
• 7-10-day detox admission