“I too am in recovery,” Kelly Pichotta, a director at New Season Treatment Center in Covington, Ky., said. 

Pichotta celebrates 15 years in recovery from opioid use disorder. Recruited to the organization by one of her previous work managers, she was initially apprehensive to join the organization, but has not looked back for one day since she’s been on board. “Today I feel like a BEAST!,” she exclaimed. 

“To me, this month represents all the struggles and all the accomplishments that we as recovery people have worked so hard to overcome — stigma, little treatment offered and the daily struggles of just waking up and putting your pants on one leg at a time!” 

To celebrate Recovery Month, Pichotta and all the well-loved people living with and recovering from opioid use disorder, the team at New Season Treatment Center in Covington, Ky., will release purple balloons to honor those in recovery. They are also creating an inspiration wall to motivate others to seek out and stay in treatment. The other New Season Treatment Centers across the U.S. will also celebrate this important observance in many different ways.

Recovery Month, observed every September since 1989, celebrates recovering patients and their treatment providers. The international observance brings awareness and funding to mental health and addiction recovery.

“This month is not about the one person who chose to recover. It’s about all the people who chose to keep showing up and showing another person that a sober life is so much better than a life not remembered,” Pichotta said.

Everyday, Pichotta tells her patients: “Lessons that you learned in your darkest moment can be the foundation you need for a bright and hopeful tomorrow.” This month, and always, New Season Treatment Center celebrates the thousands of people who chose, and continue to choose, recovery.

If you or a loved one need help overcoming substance use disorder, we are standing by to help — call, click or get help now.