What everyone deserves to understand about substance use, recovery and support.
Understanding before decisions
If you are here, you are likely trying to make sense of something that feels confusing, overwhelming, or hard to talk about.
Substance use affects people across many seasons of life. It does not look the same for everyone, and it does not move in a straight line. Too often, people are given fragmented information or advice rooted in fear rather than understanding.
Whole Life Recovery offers a clear, science-informed way to understand substance use and recovery as part of health across a lifetime. The resources below are designed to help individuals, families, and those who support them orient themselves, ask better questions, and make more grounded decisions wherever they are.
What Everybody Needs to Know
A short, plain-language overview of how substance use and recovery actually work. This guide introduces recovery as a lifelong dimension of health, explains why fear-based approaches fall short, and offers a steadier way to think about support, treatment, and change.
The Spectrum of Substance Use
Not all substance use means addiction. This guide helps people understand the full range of use patterns and recognize early shifts without jumping to extremes.
Beyond the Myth
Challenges common assumptions about addiction and recovery. This resource replaces outdated beliefs with what science and lived experience actually show.
What Helps vs. What Hurts
Families and supporters often act with care but receive advice that unintentionally increases shame or conflict. This guide clarifies what truly supports recovery and what can undermine it.
Understanding Return to Use
Return to use is common and expected in many recovery journeys. This resource explains why it happens and how responses can either support stability or cause harm
Choose A Path That Fits Where You Are Right Now
For Yourself
A quite moment to reflect
If you’re noticing questions about your own relationship with substances, this is a quiet place to pause for yourself. There’s no pressure to decide anything. Just space to notice what’s working, what feels harder and what you might want more clarity around.
For Someone You Care About
Support without losing connection
If you’re here because you are worried about someone else, you are not alone. Many people want to help, but are not sure what actually makes a difference. This space offers guidance for supporting someone you care about, without making things worse or losing connection.
These resources are meant to be returned to.
Questions change over time, and it’s normal to come back as new ones arise.
You don’t need to read everything or decide anything now.
Take what’s useful in this moment, and know you can return whenever you need.