A “lingua franca” is a means of communication that is used when participants in trade or other activities speak different languages. A lingua franca is a bridge that allows the participants to understand one another and conduct the business at hand. For example, English is the lingua franca of aviation. Without the ability to communicate and understand each other, there would be far more flight mishaps and crashes. Luckily for us, airplanes tend to stay in the air and crises are averted because pilots can effectively communicate with ground control.
Hope is the lingua franca of recovery. It is the bridge between addiction and recovery. In the beginning of recovery, it is often a precious commodity. Sometimes all we get is a glimpse — but even that may be enough for us to hold on for one more day and to keep coming back.
In my early attempts at sobriety, failure was the norm. I tried many times to stop drinking, to no avail. Some say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It turns out that running headlong at full speed into a brick wall over and over again tends to kill hope over time. Nothing I came up with on my own worked, until I went to treatment and started to attend regular recovery meetings.
In recovery meetings, we share our experience, strength, and hope to give hope to the hopeless. Hope is the belief that things can get better when all prior attempts at change have failed. I have often described the magic that happens in recovery meetings as akin to putting our hope on the table and inviting the hopeless or hope-deprived to take what they need. When they do, more hope is generated, and the cycle begins anew. It is a beautiful thing.
Hope allows us to be vulnerable and to be open and honest about our darkness and our struggles. I am always astounded by the willingness of people in recovery to share painful and sometimes embarrassing details of their lives with each other. And I am even more astounded that the near-universal reaction of those who are listening is not judgment, but compassion and support. More often than not, hearing someone else’s story spurs someone to say that that is exactly what happened to them. That gives those listening hope that recovery is possible in spite of what they may have experienced. In recovery we look for the similarities, not the differences. And we find hope.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction and feeling hopeless, please call LCL at 651-646-5590. You will find help and you will find hope. You may ask how I know that. It is because that is what I found when I called many years ago. And you will, too.