Recovery or relief

If you break your arm, and take painkillers, the pain signals will be dulled, but the source of the pain will be unaffected.

Relief is not recovery.

Many recovery activities, particularly meetings and sharing, provide such relief.

Relief is not bad, unless it is a substitute for recovery.

However, relief becomes a real problem when the individual believes that, because they feel temporarily relieved, they are making progress. They are not.

Recovery is actually painful, because it requires the source to be uncovered and surgically treated.

Temporarily everything feels worse.

Ultimately, however, recovery produces a different type of relief: relief because the cause of the pain has been eliminated.

Consolation is the consolation prize (= the booby prize). Don't be the booby. Go for recovery instead.