By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

September is National Recovery Month, and IHR Executive Director Joe Vaughan stopped by the station to talk about the steps to recovery.

Vaughan said this applies to both substance addictions and mental health issues. He said they are there to help people in every step of recovery.

“Every day is one day that you remain sober and drug free and you continue to move forward and put the years behind you. With mental health, it’s somewhat the same concept, where you have to do the things you’re going to be successful with, avoid negative pitfalls, and take medications if they’re prescribed. Now, do people have to take medication forever? Not necessarily. It depends on the severity of your mental health issue. It just depends. Everybody is different and everybody looks at treatment and goes through treatment at a different pace and a different way and it’s up to us to help them navigate through that,” Vaughan said.

The forum with Vaughan can be found in the Podcast section at wjez.com.