In the stormy seas of substance use, we can feel alone, floating in our life raft, with no help in sight. This alienating feeling can cause us to shut down at a time when we need to open up and reach for support.
Just like surviving in a life raft on the open seas is next to impossible, the odds of success in recovery completely on our own are next to impossible, too. We need support in recovery.
Asking for Support
Most people entering treatment aren’t just walking in off the street looking for entertainment. Most of us are at our rock bottom, and probably scared.
We have seen a lot, we have done a lot, we have lost our control of substance use, and we need all the help we can get. Perhaps we don’t think to ask for support as we are checking ourselves in for our residential treatment, but now is when we need help the most.
As we gain our bearings in treatment, we might try to reach out to others in our lives and ask them for support. We can be honest about where we are, how we got here, and what we are going through. In doing so, we can also ask them for the type of support we need.
After our initial treatment, it will be a listening ear, an exercise buddy, or someone to help us find new ways to have fun. We need people we can call at 1 am when we are having an intense craving or emotionally ready to relapse.
We need people for us to love, who will love us unconditionally in return. We need a family who can love us without judgment, friends who will make us laugh, and people who have been there before and know our journey.
Support from Treatment
Many of the people who work in the field of addiction recovery are also in recovery themselves. They have been at their rock bottom, they have healed, and they have walked the path of recovery ever since. These people can be our guides, they can be our mentors, and they will do what they can to help.
Support from Therapists
Therapists support us as no one else can. From the therapists we see in treatment, to the therapists we may see following treatment, they can see our lives from a more neutral standpoint and help us through the good and bad times. They can reinforce the skills we learned in treatment and help us to continue along our path.
Support from Family
Relationships with family can range from fantastic to toxic and everything in between. Ideally, we can lean on them as we recover, because the journey is long and we need people who can love us unconditionally.
These are the people whom we can call at any hour, whom we can laugh with, cry with, and let our hair down with. They have seen our rock bottom, and they want to help raise us again to be stronger and better human beings. We can ask for their support and lean on them as we take our recovery journey.
Support from Friends
Friends are the family that we choose. It is very unlikely that there was ever a time that we needed our friends more.
Friends can bring us joy and laughter. They can distract us in times of uncertainty, lift us in times of sadness, and yet hold us through the pain.
We can talk, confide, and lift up and support one another as we struggle through life together. We don’t need to walk the recovery path alone, we can reach out to our friends, and they can walk beside us.
Recovery is no time to let ourselves be stranded alone at sea. We can reach out beyond the lifeboat of our treatment and find safety and shelter amongst our friends and family.
We can accept the support of the capable and dedicated staff who are treating us, and we can put our trust in our therapists to help guide us back to the ship of life. The more support we seek, the more support we find.
The more support we have, the greater our chances of success will be in our recovery. Never underestimate the power of support, especially in recovery. Our healing depends upon it.
Find the value of support at AToN Center. Call (888) 535-1516 today to begin your recovery journey. Let us help you build a support system now and for your future.
Originally posted on April 26, 2020 @ 12:38 pm
