Relationships and Recovery: How to Find the Right Support
Relationships and Recovery: How to Find the Right Support
Relationships and recovery can be very closely connected when a person struggles with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. As you enter your recovery stage after addiction treatment, you will form new, more healthy relationships. And, these relationships will help you in your new life of sobriety. However, being in the wrong relationship can lead to stress and anxiety. Any problems in a relationship can lead to more alcohol or drug use.
Good relationships will help you thrive by lending you emotional support in your recovery. Healthy relationships bring out the best in you whereas, your old relationships may bring out the worst. After all, you want to be around people who support you and keep you “up” instead of bringing you down. Respect is essential in good relationships. Each person must respect the other’s values, wishes, and well-being. A healthy relationship in addiction recovery is one in which a friend lends support and encouragement to one striving to remain alcohol or drug-free.
Preventing Relapse After Treatment
According to the journal Addiction, patients who receive treatment within 30 days of detox are 10 times less likely to relapse. Those who complete detox with no rehab afterward, usually regress at between 65 and 80 percent! So, when you combine detox with rehabilitation, the results are much better. Detox alone does not give you the tools and education necessary to be able to live a sober and productive life. In addition, you need counseling and a treatment program that will prepare you for life outside of rehab. Also, you need to learn how to avoid triggers and resist the temptation to use substances when cravings hit, and they will hit you.
Furthermore, combining detox, rehabilitation, and aftercare shows excellent results. If the addict receives all three components, they will have a much better chance of maintaining a lifetime of recovery and sobriety.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse:
If you don’t work on your sobriety, you may relapse just as a diabetic will relapse if they don’t maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine. Remember, it is something you have to maintain every day for the rest of your life.
Relationships and Recovery Conducive to Sobriety
Addiction statistics show that the overall percentage of people who will relapse after a period of recovery ranges anywhere from 50% to 90%. This relapse rate depends on which treatment program they attend. Most importantly, what steps they take after rehab is imperative to their recovery. Continue attending support group meetings. The bond that you will have with others new to recovery will be very beneficial in your recovery. After all, you can all give support and encouragement to each other. Also, you will form new friendships and relationships that may last for the rest of your life.
The people that you associate with after treatment will make all the difference in the world. The statistics might be frightening, and some people will use it as a reason to carry on with their addiction. However, the truth of the matter is that the recovering addict is 100% in control of their future at all times. Relationships and recovery mean putting yourself around better and more productive people. Doing this will certainly make significant improvements for a recovering addict.
Prevent Relapse by Choosing the Right Relationships
If a recovering addict seeks good people to be around after rehab, they will do well in recovery. Hanging out with the “same crowd” that still uses drugs or alcohol is only asking for a relapse. You may tell yourself that you can just have one or two drinks, but you can’t. If your problem is drugs, you may think that you can only smoke marijuana while they are doing prescription painkillers or heroin, but you can’t. Too many people try this after rehab. Thinking this way only results in too many people going back to using as much, if not more.
Relationships and recovery go hand-in-hand. By forming new healthy relationships with sober individuals, you will be able to live in recovery without sinking back into addiction. Don’t let this happen to you. Again, find new people to have in your life and live with sobriety, happiness, and health. This is your goal, and you can attain that goal.
- drugabuse.gov – Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction
