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Most people think recovery means one thing: stop drinking, stop using, and stay stopped.

That sounds simple enough.  For some people, it even sounds easy.  Just make a decision, stick to it, and move on with your life.

But if that worked, you wouldn’t be here.

Most people who struggle with addiction have already made that decision — more than once.  They’ve sworn it off.  Promised themselves.  Promised other people.  Meant it, too.

And still, somehow, they end up right back where they started.

So either those people are weak … or something else is going on.

Stopping Isn’t the Same as Recovering

There is a difference between stopping and having recovered.

A person can stop for a week, a month, even a year, and still feel restless, irritable, and discontent.  Still feel like something is missing.  Still feel pulled back toward the very thing they are trying to avoid.

That’s not recovery.  That’s holding your breath, and eventually, everyone has to breathe.

Recovery is not about managing behavior for as long as you can stand it.  It’s not about white-knuckling your way through life.  It’s not about trying harder this time than you did last time.

If that were the solution, it would have worked already.

What Actually Changes in Recovery

Recovery begins when something deeper changes.  Not just your habits, but your relationship to the world around you.

People who recover don’t spend their lives fighting the urge to drink or use.  They don’t wake up every day trying to resist something that still has power over them.

At some point, that pull is removed.

Not because they became stronger, but because something about the way they see and live in the world has changed.

The same problems may still exist.  Life doesn’t suddenly become perfect.  But the way those problems are experienced and handled becomes different.

When you recover, instead of constantly trying to escape life, you begin to live it.

Willpower Isn’t Enough

Most people come into this believing the solution is more effort.

More discipline.

More control.

More resolve.

But addiction doesn’t respond to willpower the way other problems do.

In fact, many people struggling with addiction are already using an enormous amount of effort just to hold things together. From the outside, it may not look like it, but internally, it’s exhausting.

The issue isn’t a lack of effort.  It’s that effort alone can’t solve the problem.

A Different Kind of Solution

Recovery offers a different kind of solution.

Instead of trying to force change through personal effort, it provides a way to actually become different in how you think, how you respond, and how you live.

The person who has recovered finds that the desire to use no longer occupies and dominates their life.

This process doesn’t happen overnight. And it doesn’t happen by accident.

It requires honesty, willingness, and a program that works.

If wanting to stop were enough, most people with an addiction problem would recover.

And yet, they keep going back.

Wanting it isn’t enough.

Using Has Become Your Default

Based on your track record, you may already know that picking up a drink or a drug again would be a terrible decision.  It has never ended well, no matter how you went about it.

And yet, it still happens.

That’s because, over time, substance use is no longer something you just do. It becomes your default response to life.

This isn’t just a mental choice anymore. It works its way into your thinking, your body, and your reactions. Because of that, something in you will always know that self-medicating is an option.  Even when you know it’s a bad one.

When Pressure Builds, Thinking Changes

When stress begins to pile up, the urge doesn’t sit quietly in the background. It starts to take over.

Thoughts about using become more frequent and more persistent. The reasonable, sane ideas about staying stopped begin to get pushed aside. You may even find yourself justifying it.

At a certain point, it no longer feels like a decision.  And then it happens — just like it has before.

Stress comes from many directions.

Anger is one.

Fear and worry are another.

Not feeling good about yourself.

Not getting your way.

Life has no shortage of ways to apply pressure.  The world is not going to change for you.

The Cycle Repeats

Left to your own devices, the pattern repeats itself:

Stop.

Hold on for a while.

Get overwhelmed.

Go back.

Over and over again.  This isn’t random.  It’s predictable.

Why This Keeps Happening

Most people try to solve this by applying more effort.  They make new rules.  They try to control it. They promise themselves this time will be different.

But the problem isn’t a lack of effort.  The problem is that nothing fundamental has changed, so the outcome doesn’t change either.

Where That Leaves You

At some point, most people run out of their own ideas. They’ve tried everything they know to try, and it hasn’t worked.

That’s not failure.  That’s the point where something different becomes possible.  Because if what you’ve been doing isn’t working, the answer isn’t to try harder.

It’s to try something different.

CORE is different from many other programs in Missouri. We are a recovery provider, not a harm-reduction (MAT) program.

Our approach is time-honored, proven, and well tested — the Twelve Steps.

As a recovery model, Twelve Step facilitation has been studied and favorably evaluated for decades, including in large systematic reviews by the esteemed Cochrane Collaboration.

And there’s something important that even those studies don’t fully capture.

Our program is not something you simply “try.” It’s something you do, and continue to live.

In the real world, recovery takes hold when you actively incorporate the principles of the Steps into your life. When you do, the result is not a constant struggle to stay stopped.  It is a fundamental change in how you live and respond to life.

The obsession to use is lifted, and substances are no longer the central issue in your life.

Life-altering freedom from substances is a common experience at CORE.  Our staff alone collectively represents more than 200 years of continuous recovery.  Several have been sober for decades.  Not by managing addiction, but by living the same process we ask you to follow.

Environment Matters

Recovery doesn’t happen in isolation.  Your environment matters.   If nothing around you changes, it’s difficult for anything inside you to change.

Same routines.

Same pressures.

Same thinking.

Same results.

At CORE, the environment is different on purpose. We are communities of recovery for a reason.

You’re not left alone to figure this out.  You’re surrounded by people who are working through the same program, dealing with the same issues, and moving in the same direction.

The Recovery Process

Recovery is a process that requires participation.  It’s structured:

There is housing.

There are classes.

There are expectations.

There is accountability.

Not to control you, but to give you something to actually do differently that leads to success.

Our recovery program is more than something you check in on once or twice a week.  It’s immersive.   You live in a recovery environment.  You spend time with people who are serious about change.  You engage in the process daily.

Your level of involvement isn’t extra.  It’s necessary.  The patterns you’re trying to break didn’t develop occasionally but over time.  Changing them requires the same kind of consistency.

A Different Kind of Result

At CORE, the goal is not just to help you stop using.

We show you how to become the kind of person who no longer needs to use.

That means changing:

How you respond to stress.

How you deal with other people.

How you handle life when it doesn’t go your way.

You won’t avoid life. You will learn how to live it differently.

Our graduates enjoy anywhere from one year to several decades of recovery, just like our staff.  By incorporating the lessons of the program into their lives, they wake each day with gratitude for their freedom. They live with purpose, happiness, and hope.

The benefits of this program are available to anyone willing to commit to it and incorporate it into their lives.

CORE phased out MAT (medication-assisted treatment) because it is incompatible with a recovery model.

We do not use methadone, buprenorphine, or other opioid replacement medications as part of our program.

Recovery vs. Continued Dependence

Medication-assisted treatment may stabilize a person as part of a harm-reduction plan.

But stabilization is not the same as recovery.

Recovery is freedom from drug dependence, not a different form of it.

With MAT, a person’s life still revolves around opioids. Decisions are still made about dosing, timing, and access. The delivery system changes, but the relationship to drugs does not.

A chemical is still required to make life tolerable.

The Cost of Chemical Management

The effects of long-term opioid use, even when prescribed, are well known:

Cognitive Dulling

Emotional Flattening

Chronic Constipation

Gut Dysfunction

Sexual Dysfunction

This is not a picture of restored life. It is a managed condition.

A Fundamentally Different Aim

CORE is about transformation and new life, not chemical management.

A recovered individual has no need for chemical support. He wakes each morning without a baseline drug requirement. His emotions rise and fall naturally.

Life is no longer planned around a substance.

There is no dosing schedule.

No dependency.

No constant calculation.

There is freedom.  And with it, the real world, full of possibility.

CORE does not help people manage dependence.  We show them how to become free from it.

Our clients recover without medication, without management, without fear. They live happy, joyous, and free.

We cannot in good faith offer a program built around daily opioid use. We will not present anything less than recovery to people who are looking for help.

If you are the kind of substance user described above, you may be in a situation for which there is no middle-of-the-road solution.

You are not able to stop using on your own.  You probably are out of ideas.  Encouragement (or threats) from family, friends, employers, or the legal system have not made a difference.

Your entire being craves relief from life’s stress, and it is too much for you.  You have no mental defense against that pressure.  And no other person, no matter how close to you, can provide that defense.

You always end up using.  Left to yourself, that is unlikely to change. 

So your options are as follows:

You can continue on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of your situation as best you can;

You can pursue medication-assisted treatment. It may offer limited relief, but you will not feel whole. Your life will still be organized around a substance;

Or you can accept your circumstances and devote yourself to a program that shows you how to recover.

CORE offers that option.

If you are willing and work for it, you will not regret that decision.

Recovery changes your relationship to the emotional weight of your past.

You no longer live in it.

You are no longer defined by it.

You are no longer driven by the need to escape it.

The past is still there, but it no longer owns you.

When you recover, you experience life as it comes.  Joy, grief, excitement, frustration — they are all part of it.  Nothing is numbed.  Nothing is chemically managed.  Nothing is pushed away.

Other things begin to change.

The sense of uselessness.

The self-pity that feeds on itself.

The fear that everything is about to fall apart.

The self-centeredness that drives those feelings.

These begin to recede.

Your reactions no longer run the show.

They rise.

They pass.

And life continues.

Someone more stable begins to emerge.  You become a person who can face life as it is without needing to escape it.

When you recover, the things that matter in life become possible:

Relationships,

Responsibility,

Loss and love, intertwined, and

The daily, ordinary things that quietly become meaningful.

Life may still be messy, even painful at times, but it will be alive with meaning.

In recovery, you find what you were looking for all along.  You used substances to try to find peace and contentment.  In recovery, you discover what these things actually are.

Yes, you will hear about God at CORE.

God is at the center of the 12 Steps, which are designed to change the things inside you that make substances feel necessary in the first place.

Our program helps you learn how to deal with the fear, resentment, isolation, shame, and emptiness that often drive addiction. By working the Steps, you begin to build healthier ways of living:

Honesty Instead Of Hiding

Acceptance Instead Of Trying To Control Everything

Connection Instead Of Isolation

Service Instead Of Self-Obsession

Meaning Instead Of Emptiness

There is a lot packed into this, but God plays an important role in helping you make these changes. As you work the Steps, your life will no longer feel like something you need to escape.

CORE is also a Christian organization. In addition to recovery classes, we offer weekly spirituality classes and church services that reflect our Christian values and beliefs.

We are open about who we are, but we are not asking you to arrive here with perfect beliefs or all the answers.

You do not need certainty on day one. You do not need to have God figured out before you begin.

What matters most at the start is honesty, openness, and a willingness to take the next step.

What Should I Bring?

It is suggested that you bring towels/washcloths, laundry basket, laundry hamper, shower caddy and clothes hangers. Laundry machines and supplies are at each residence. Space is provided in shared refrigerators and you must supply your own food.

Can I Smoke?

All CORE facilities have designated smoking/vaping areas.

Can I Have A Cell Phone?

Yes, having a cell phone is recommended. The only restriction on cell phone use is during classes, meetings, or
church services.

Can I Have Visitors?

Clients are encouraged to bridge and build their family ties. This is not a lock down program and clients are free to make their own choices. Overnight visits are only permitted by approval of the program manager.

How Much Does It Cost?

The cost of operating the program for 250 people is partially paid for with a weekly program fee. Please call admissions for the details.

Can I Bring My Car?

All client vehicles on CORE premises must be properly registered, licensed, and insured. Clients are allowed to use their vehicles starting 30 days after admission. This rule is designed for the client’s benefit. Additionally, clients are not permitted to lend their vehicles to other clients for any purpose.

What Happens If I Use Drugs And/Or Alcohol?

Any use of illegal drugs or abuse of prescription drugs or use of alcohol may result in immediate eviction from the program. Drug and alcohol testing is random and may be called for at any time by any staff member.