Rights and Justice in Personal Recovery

Sor Juana fought for intellectual and spiritual rights in a system designed to deny them to women; her legacy insists that certain things—thought, creativity, autonomy—are inalienable. Recovery requires a similar assertion of rights: the right to healing regardless of past behavior, the right to be treated with dignity, the right to a second chance, the right to remake oneself. Addiction and shame work by convincing people they have forfeited these rights—that they deserve punishment, isolation, or perpetual unworthiness. Recovery is partly a justice movement: reclaiming what belongs to every human. This is not entitlement but recognition. The recovering person has the right to access treatment, to be heard without judgment, to fail and try again, to build a meaningful life. Sor Juana's fierce assertion of her own rights offers a model for those in recovery to do the same: to stand up internally and say 'I deserve this life, this recovery, this identity.'