I’d like for fellow sober-practicing or harm-reducing or actively-recovering people to consider the importance of language, and to stop calling ourselves “clean” because it inherently implies people with substance use disorder are “dirty”.
“Clean” is an unnecessary moral superlative and perpetuates the narrative that the word “dirty” stands equally in place of the word “addict” - it makes “person with substance use disorder” a pejorative.
I don’t know why we do this. When someone sprains an ankle and they go into physical therapy, we don’t say they’re getting clean. They’re healing.
And so it is with us. We aren’t getting “clean” because we weren’t and aren’t “dirty” in the first place. We aren’t bathing. We are healing. Practicing. Working. Trying. Recovering.
And we deserve to refer to ourselves kindly and respectfully.
♥
