Self-Acceptance and Its Role in Women's Recovery from Addiction

This article seeks to explore a new concept, passionate self-acceptance, as a factor in women's recovery from addiction. This author contends that what may appear to be defiance and noncompliance may in fact be evidence of a passionate devotion to one's own truth that should be nurtured rather than neutralized. Passionate self-acceptance is the term the author chose to call this devotion and it is defined as an intrinsic quality characterized by the devoted courage to transcend negative messages while focusing on positive relationships, to enable knowing and embracing all-of-self. Story Theory (Liehr & Smith, 2008) provided the framework for the 10-step process of concept development. The process utilized in developing this concept is described. A practice story is provided to demonstrate the concept. Implications for nursing practice are discussed.