Beginning a journey in recovery can be exciting. However, it can also be a very scary situation. One stage of recovery that can be extremely agonizing is the day you successfully walk away from a treatment program.
You’ll be armed with tools and knowledge to help you live clean and sober. But, sometimes all the knowledge and information in the world isn’t enough. Successful sobriety needs a support network.
As you progress through most treatment programs, you’ll begin to understand how to build these support networks and appreciate why they are so important. Here are some suggestions to help you formulate a recovery support network after treatment.
Professional Staff
Once you leave a treatment facility or complete your last session of an outpatient program, the professionals who helped you will not just vanish. However, other than court-ordered check-ins, keeping in touch with counselors and therapists is your responsibility.
The first few days and weeks away from the comfortable surroundings of treatment can be full of challenges. Sound advice would be to establish a relationship with the professionals involved in your treatment program before you finish.
Don’t be afraid to use these knowledgeable connections. They are there to help and the want to see you succeed. When treatment is over, you’ll find it much easier to make contact with these people.
Don’t just wait for a catastrophe to happen, such as a relapse, to make contact. Keep in touch with the professional staff from your treatment experience as a key part of your support network.
Friends in Recovery
This may be one of the most important support groups you will ever develop. These individuals may be from completely different walks of life. Each may come from a different ethnicity, religion, or part of the world.
The road they took that entangled them in a web of addiction may be vastly different as well. What you will have is a life-saving common bond; recovery. Some of these people will become your dearest friends in the world.
You are going to find out, just because you decided to get clean and sober, life is still going to happen. Painting an unrealistic, rosy picture of a perfect life after treatment would be misleading.
Having a support network of friends who are also walking the journey of recovery will prove invaluable. These friends in recovery will be an understanding ear when life in recovery begins to happen, because it will.
Friends in a Fellowship
Becoming part of a recovery community is possibly the best place to find indispensable friendships. There are a number of recovery fellowships that offer endless possibilities to build a recovery network.
Some of these people may become part of the previous group of close friendships. Others may be people who can help with living situations, job ambitions, or just life situations that baffle you.
Frequently, when attending group sessions and fellowship meetings, members will be all too eager to provide you with phone numbers. These are only useful if you use them. There is truth in the belief that when one addict calls another, the one who takes the call benefits as much as the one who dialed the phone.
Your Family
As time passes, you will be able to rebuild lost relationships with your family. Sometimes, family members have been forced to exercise tough love. There will be forgiveness necessary by all parties when it comes to family relationships.
However, as you repair the damage caused by the wreckage of your past, your family can be an excellent source of support. If you’re fortunate, like many recovering addicts and alcoholics, you may find your family grows into one of the most encouraging and supportive parts of your network.
As your recovery network grows, so will your confidence that you can stay clean and sober. Remain cautious about becoming complacent with using this valuable tool for recovery. You will discover people who you identify with more than others.
Each of these individuals will become important connections in your support network. Again, you can have hundreds of phone numbers and boast of dozens of recovery friendships. But they only work if you use them. Make it a point to stay in contact with the closest people in your support network.
Find yourself a group or fellowship to build new relationships. There are various parts of your recovery program that will be important. However, formulating a solid support network after treatment may be one of the most rewarding. Call us today at 772-266-5320.
