It’s no small phenomena that many people in recovery often choose to become a bigger part of the picture—they want to hold onto the support they’ve been given. Compassion for others fosters greater self-worth, which in turn improves mental health, and contributes to long lasting recovery. Of course, no interventionist, therapist, or other addiction recovery professional with a personal connection to addiction is not going to help other addicts for the sake of their own recovery. It infuses with the greater intention of their life’s work.

Personal experience can be very important in understanding addiction, and of course, can be used to relate to addicts. It’s easy to be an addict and feel entirely misunderstood by a society that prompted you to start using in the first place.

Some addicts who have in turn become addiction recovery professionals have taken more public positions than others—for example, the show Intervention strongly features interventionists who have been in recovery themselves—not unusual. But some of those interventionists have provided some of the most powerful examples of transformation, and some have used their experience to really demonstrate that it’s possible to be recovered and stay RECOVERED.

One great example of this shift is in Sylvia Parsons, who was first seen on Intervention as the woman who constantly drank alcohol out of minibar bottles. She’d later go on to be the very first recovered addict on the show to become an interventionist herself.

Those who have gone through recovery and now, sober, use their experience to connect with others. As an addict grasping for straws, you might not realize how desperate you are for a connection—with anyone. Some might have the attitude, why should I talk to someone who doesn’t have the same experience as me? How will they understand me?