50 Quotes That are Inspirational for Illness and Addiction Recovery

Drug addiction is an illness that affects an estimated 21 million Americans every year. Addiction includes any repeated use of opioids, alcohol, or other drugs. Addiction is one of the most challenging things to overcome but it’s all too possible to do so. Countless people take the brave step to overcome addiction every day and are successful in their newfound journeys.

1. Change must start from the individual, and the individual must want and feel ready to make a change. – Efrat Cybulkiewicz

2. Anyone can give up; it is the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone would expect you to fall a part, now that is true strength. - Chris Bradford

 3. Your best days are ahead of you. The movie starts when the guy gets sober and puts his life back together; it doesn’t end there. - Bucky Sinister

4. Courage is resistance to fear. Mastery of fear not the absence of fear. - Mark Twain 

5.  Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it but also the father who wipes away the tears. - Criss Jami

6. No matter how dark the light may get, your light will never burn out. - Jeanette LeBlanc

7. An overindulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate. - Criss Jami

8. Sometimes you can only find Heaven by slowly backing away from hell. - Carrie Fisher 

9. If we are facing the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. - Zen Proverbs 

10. Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. - Carl Bard

11. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
– Robert Collier

12. Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard

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

Having surgery can be scary no matter how big or small the operation. Just the idea of the unknown is pretty frightening for most of us, and not knowing how that moment will go is scary in itself. Maybe you or a friend, or even a relative is going through this right now.   

It’s important to remember to think positive no matter what you’re dealing with because sometimes things are never as scary as they may seem. Here are beautiful quotes on staying strong and having no fear during a life event such as surgery. 

14. Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong. - Sarah Dessen 

15. Stay strong, be brave, love hard and true, and you will have nothing to lose. - Demi Lovato

16. Flexibility makes buildings to be stronger, imagine what it can do for your soul. - Carlos Barrios

17. Pain is temporary. The pain you feel today is only to get the strength to face tomorrow. - Sivaprakash Sidhu

18. Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill 

19. When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. - Franklin D. Roosevelt 

 20. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give. - Eleanor Roosevelt 

21. Tough times never last, but tough people do. - Robert H. Schuller  

22. Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are. - Bernice Johnson Reagan 

23. Being strong doesn’t mean that you can handle every difficult situation on your own, it means that you have the sense to ask God and others for help. - Nishan Panwar

24. Be strong because things will get better. It may be stormy now but it never rains forever. - Evan Carmichael 

24. One who conquers the sea today is ready to conquer the ocean tomorrow. - E.B. White 

25.  Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is a strength. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Eating disorders occur when someone overly focuses or "obsesses" over the appearance of their own body. This can include constantly continuously critiquing the shape or weight of one's own body which can lead to an unhealthy pattern of eating. Ultimately this results in weight loss and a variety of other health problems. Eating disorders can stem from mental illnesses as well as cause them. These include depression, anxiety, and many more. 

While it's difficult dealing with the effects of eating disorders it's important to remain positive and continue to fight to get better. It may take some time but healing mentally and physically is the key. Here are some amazing quotes to help encourage and build strength while overcoming an eating disorder. 

26. I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles. - Laurie Halse Anderson

27. Love yourself unconditionally, just as you love the ones closest to you despite their faults. - Les Brown

28. In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety. - Abraham Maslow

29. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. - Anais Nin

30. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. - Buddha 

31. Where there is great love there are always miracles. - Willa Cather

32. The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. - Flora Whittemore 

33. If we are ready to tear down the walls that confine us, break the cage that imprisons us, we will discover what our wings are for. - Michael Meegan. 

34. Though no one can go back and make a new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end. - Carl Bard. 

35. Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future. - Robert Schuller 

36. My worst days in recovery are better than my best days in relapse. - Kate Le Page

37. What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

38. Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “ I will try again tomorrow.” 

39. Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble. - Benjamin Franklin

40. The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it. - Moliere

41. Life keeps throwing me stones and I keep finding the diamonds. - Ana Claudia Antunes

42. You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity. - Golda Meir

43. We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. - Kenji Miyazawa

44. Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight. - Josh Billings 

45. We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. - Barbara De Angelis

46. The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. - Chinese Proverb

47. As with the butterfly, adversity is necessary to build character in people. - Joseph B. Wirthlin 

48. As with the butterfly, adversity is necessary to build character in people. - Joseph B. Wirthlin 

49. Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. - Napoleon Hill

50. Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.- Lou Holtz

No matter what difficulty you are facing, quotes are a source of motivation to aspire us to be better. Find a community and I wish you to become a better you!