Have you ever celebrated May Day? I haven’t. When I hear about May Day, I always think of people dancing around a Maypole, but maybe I’m confusing that with the Festivus tetherball pole featured in the television program Seinfeld. Of course, there’s also the May Day that the Soviet Union used to celebrate with soldiers and tanks in Red Square, but I haven’t experienced that kind of May Day, either.

May Day always sounds so promising. May and springtime are times of renewal, of growth, and of hope. Hope is something that can be hard to find during drug or alcohol abuse. Yet, hope is the thing that can make all the difference in becoming sober and staying that way.

Hope can motivate us. Hope can transform people’s lives. It can transform lives from the misery of substance use disorder to lives of improved physical and mental health. Hope isn’t everything, of course, but it can mean so much.

Positivity in general can do wonders. Some cancer treatment centers and other health care practitioners use laughter therapy and humor as part of treatment regimens. On an informal note, you may have observed how positivity affects your own life. Doesn’t it just feel better when we approach things with more hope and optimism instead of dreading every little thing that might happen (but probably even doesn’t)?

Without hope, people might not have the drive to attend rehab or find another sort of treatment. If they don’t find this much-needed help for their addictions, they could suffer severe side effects, overdose, or even die. Having hope can mean the difference between life and death.

Luckily, there are people who help people find hope, even when it might appear that all hope is lost. Even during the darkness of drug and alcohol abuse, hope can be found, which could help people find even greater hope in their ultimate recoveries.