When Politics Walk Into the Rooms

There used to be a saying in recovery circles: “Politics doesn’t belong in recovery.” It sounded good, simple, and maybe even true — back when people could leave their opinions at the door and just focus on staying clean, one day at a time.

But that’s not where we live anymore.
These days, politics has marched right into the room and sat down in the front row with a clipboard and a judgmental look. The political climate has crept into everything — from how we fund treatment programs to how we define “family,” “freedom,” and even “recovery” itself.

For a lot of people trying to rebuild their lives, politics isn’t some abstract debate on TV — it’s whether or not their food stamps arrive. It’s the difference between having child care for a court-mandated job or losing their kids because CCAP froze until 2027. It’s whether a DHS worker sees them as a mother trying her best or another “case number.”

When policy becomes personal, recovery stops being neutral.
We can’t tell a woman who just lost access to SNAP benefits that “politics doesn’t belong here.” It does — because it shapes every part of her reality. Her grocery list. Her gas tank. Her hope.

And yet, recovery spaces are supposed to be safe — not battlegrounds.
That’s the tightrope we walk every day. We hold space for people whose beliefs may clash, but whose pain often looks the same. We learn that compassion doesn’t require agreement, and that advocacy isn’t politics — it’s love with a clipboard and a to-do list.

If recovery is about healing what’s been broken, then we can’t ignore what’s breaking people right now.
Politics might not belong in recovery meetings — but humanity does. And if the system won’t bend toward healing, then recovery folks like us will have to start bending it ourselves.