Recovery, not "addiction," should be the focus of discussions between people with alcohol and other drug problems and the media, lawmakers, and the public, according to Faces and Voices of Recovery.

The "messaging" advice from Faces and Voices has been years in the making, with its roots in a 2001 organizing meeting in St. Paul, Minn., and attitudinal surveys of the public and the recovery community conducted by Hart/Teeter in 2001 and 2004.

"One of the important findings from our groundbreaking 2004 survey of the general public was that people believe that the word 'recovery' means that someone is trying to stop using alcohol or other drugs," Faces and Voices noted in its new messaging document. "We realized that we needed to find a way to talk about recovery that would allow us to be clear and believable when describing it, in a way that will move our advocacy agenda forward."

Patricia Taylor, campaign coordinator for Faces and Voices of Recovery, said initial reaction to the document has been overwhelmingly favorable. "We have not had one negative comment," she said. Taylor said that recovery advocates in Richmond, Va., and Salt Lake City, Utah, have already worked the Faces and Voices messages into their public-policy advocacy; a PowerPoint document for use by advocates is available on the Faces and Voices website.

William White, a noted addiction and recovery historian and senior research consultant for Chestnut Health Systems, praised the Faces and Voices document and predicted that it will get widespread attention within the recovery advocacy community.

The Faces and Voices messaging document includes model statements for people in recovery to use when speaking in public, as well as suggested verbiage for use by friends or family members. Faces and Voices also includes guidance on where and when to advocate for recovery, including in the media, at coalition meetings, with supporters and legislators, and in advocacy materials.

"This is a dialogue with the non-recovering community that will be incorporated in all of the work we do," said Taylor, who told Join Together that Faces and Voices has had "no problem identifying people who are willing to tell their story and identify themselves fully" in conversations with reporters or in other public forums.

Faces and Voices stressed the need for delivering personalized, simple messages that focus on recovery, not addiction. Part of the goal is to educate the public that recovery is not just about stopping alcohol or other drug use but also creating a better life; the use of the term "long-term recovery" is favored over "in recovery" to stress stability.

White called the emphasis on long-term recovery the document's key point, noting, "The public at large doesn't understand what we mean by 'recovery.'" He added that his personal preference would be to use the term "recovered" to signal sustained recovery, but acknowledged that the latter term still engenders significant resistance among those who believe that addiction is a lifelong struggle.

The document also offers advice on language not to use, including the words "addict" and "alcoholic," which Faces and Voices says reinforce "the idea of a revolving door, that you or the person in your family is still struggling with active addiction." Faces and Voices also avoids mentioning any particular pathway to recovery, such as AA, or even a definition of recovery.

The concepts of addiction being a disease and a health problem also are avoided. "We found that many people believe that addiction is a moral issue, not a health problem," Faces and Voices noted. "Even when someone says that they believe it's a health problem, when we scratched below the surface we found that because of their personal experiences and/or prejudices, it's difficult for many Americans to truly believe that addiction is a disease or health problem."

White said that the Faces and Voices document "of course" contains some elements of political correctness, but said that the recovery community needs to draw a distinction between internal use of terms like addict and alcoholic -- often used with affection among recovering people -- and their "utility in terms of reducing public stigma."

Avoiding the concept of addiction as a disease may be the toughest nut to swallow for many in Faces and Voices' audience: both the private sector and the federal government have expended considerable time and money in promoting the idea that addiction is not a moral failing.

White said that while the hope has been that "if people were educated that [addiction] is a disease, it would automatically drive down stigma," recent mental-health research has shown that "knowledge that it was an illness did not diminish discrimination about people with mental illness."

"What does diminish stigma is direct contact with people in recovery," he said.