Addiction to drugs or alcohol is considered a mental, physical, and spiritual illness. Recovery from addiction is a life-long process. At the Discovery School of Virginia the residential group and a special activities group called Recovery Dynamics are integrated to treat students with a history of addiction. 

Recovery Dynamics is a systematic program that instructs students how to apply the twelve steps of recovery found in the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. It is also an educational program that teaches the history of the twelve steps, the different fellowships that use them, how to find a sponsor and what a sponsor is, and how to find meetings in different localities.