Are you a fan of board games? Maybe you like classic games like checkers or chess. Maybe you like more recent games like The Settlers of Catan or Wingspan. Or maybe you have a soft spot for games you played as a kid—or have played with your own children—like Candy Land or Battleship.
Whatever your taste in games (or even if you don’t care for board games at all), we believe some longtime favorites have lessons to teach us about substance use disorders, treatment, and recovery.
Let’s start with something all too obvious.
Trouble – What a Substance Use Disorder Is
Trouble might not be a terribly memorable game were it not for the “Pop-O-Matic” die container. To roll the die in Trouble, players press down on a plastic bubble in the middle of the board under which the die is located. It makes a satisfying popping sound (and keeps young players from losing the die).
A substance use disorder is, of course, a whole heap of trouble. And when you are struggling with drugs or alcohol, it can feel as though your whole life is constrained—like you are trapped in the bubble at that center of the Trouble board.
Your goal in the game is to get your pieces around the board to safety. Your goal when you are dealing with a substance use disorder should be to get yourself into treatment. That is the way out of trouble.
Scrabble – There Are Many Possibilities in Treatment and Recovery
Scrabble is a word game in which each player has seven tiles in front of them, each with a letter on it. The game is played by making words that connect to other words on the board in the style of a crossword puzzle. Each time it is your turn, you will likely find that you have a number of different words you can play based on your letters and what is on the board. You get to choose among the possibilities.
There are possibilities in both treatment for substance use disorders and in the recovery journey that follows. Your treatment plan will be personalized to your specific needs, for example, and therapy sessions during rehabilitation give you the option to talk and think about a whole range of issues related to your substance use.
In recovery, you get to establish the ongoing routines that effectively support your efforts to leave drugs and alcohol in the past. You can mix and match the various strategies to come up with the best combination for you.
Chutes and Ladders – Recovery Can Include Progress and Setbacks
In the classic game Chutes and Ladders, players try to make their way across and up a numbered grid. Along the way, they might land on a ladder square that gives them a boost up the board. But they might also like on chute square that sends them sliding back toward the bottom.
That is a pretty good metaphor for life in recovery. When you are in recovery, you will have days when you feel like you have gotten a boost, and you will have days when you feel like you are sliding backwards in your efforts to keep your recovery intact. But even if you slide all the way back to the beginning and experience a relapse, you can still start the climb toward lasting recovery again.
Monopoly – In Recovery There Are Places You Can’t ‘Afford’ to Go
If you have ever played Monopoly, you know there comes a point in the game when one player controls most of the properties. If you are not that player and you land on one of those properties, you have to pay “rent,” and as the game proceeds, rents get higher and higher. Pretty soon, you can’t afford to land in any of your opponent’s places.
Something similar is true in recovery. There are likely places (and people, too) that you associate with your time using drugs or alcohol. In recovery, you can’t afford to hang out in those places anymore because they might trigger cravings you have trouble overcoming.
Sorry! – Recovery Can Involve Relationship Repair
Honestly, the notion of being sorry is sort of intended sarcastically in the old game. When you “bump” an opponent’s piece, you might express remorse, but you are not really sorry. After all, you are trying to win the game.
But in recovery, saying you are sorry is an essential step toward repairing relationships that may have been damaged while you were using drugs or alcohol. Sincerity is key in this case—as is patience, because it may take people some time to forgive you.
Trivial Pursuit – What Recovery Is Not
We are using a trivia game to make an important point: There is nothing trivial about your pursuit of an ongoing recovery. In fact, it is hard to think of many things that could be more important in your life than reclaiming your life from drugs or alcohol.
A Substance Use Disorder Is Not All Fun and Games
If you are struggling with drugs or alcohol, life certainly does not feel like a game you can win. At French Creek Recovery Center—located in Meadville, Pennsylvania—we can help you find a path to victory over your substance use disorder. We are always here to help.