Navigating Addiction Recovery While Continuing to Drink

Not long ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s history of heroin addiction would likely have disqualified him from consideration for a role such as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Today, however, many successful authors, politicians, executives, and celebrities openly share their past struggles with substance use disorders. In some cases, their experiences of recovery even enhance their credibility.

Nonetheless, this acceptance comes with a significant caveat. Recovery is still largely defined as lifelong abstinence—not only refraining from the specific substances that once caused dependence but also avoiding all non-medical drug use except for caffeine and nicotine. Most public recovery stories—like Kennedy’s—center on total abstinence, often supported by participation in 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

In reality, the majority of people who overcome addiction—including myself—do not completely abstain from all substances indefinitely. For instance, while I am recovering from heroin and cocaine addiction, I occasionally drink alcohol and use marijuana without issue. Although definitions vary, many experts now agree that recovery is achieved when substance use no longer disrupts one’s ability to lead a productive and fulfilling life, regardless of abstinence.

However, few openly discuss their non-abstinent recovery. Many fear that admitting to having a drink or using marijuana socially will lead others to assume they remain actively addicted and face the stigma attached to it.

The scarcity of stories like mine distorts drug policy. It perpetuates the dominance of rehabilitation centers and recovery residences that mandate abstinence, discouraging many who might benefit from seeking help. It also allows most residential treatments and sober living homes to reject long-term use of addiction medications such as buprenorphine and methadone—the only treatments proven to reduce opioid overdose deaths by half—based on the mistaken belief that using these medications means a person is not truly sober or in recovery.