6 Tips for Supporting a Family Member or Loved One in Recovery

Recovery is an individual journey, but not one a person must trek alone. The support of family members and loved ones can make all the difference in a recovering individual’s motivation to remain sober. If you have a loved one who recently joined a treatment or rehabilitation program, there are things you can do to facilitate long-term recovery. While you must let your loved one forge his or her own path, you can offer support from the sidelines with a few proven tips.


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Try These 6 Techniques to Support Your Loved One During Addiction Recovery

1. Voice Your Support

Don’t assume your loved one knows he or she has your support. Recovery is a difficult journey that involves a lot of self-reflection, analysis of past mistakes, and asking forgiveness from people the addiction hurt. Your loved one might not know that you’re willing or able to help or may be too embarrassed or afraid to ask. Make your views known by voicing your support and desire to help during recovery. Make the first move. Say: “I’m here to help in any way I can,” and see what comes next.

2. Assist With Independence

Learn the difference between support and enablement. Enabling refers to a loved one encouraging a drug or alcohol dependency, usually unintentionally, through acts such as giving the recovering individual money, food, or shelter. Show your loved one you care about his or her recovery but encourage independence. For example, help your loved one get a job instead of just giving him or her money. Visit a support group for friends and family members of addicts for tips on how to avoid enabling.

3. Plan for the Future

Give your loved one something to look forward to by helping him or her create a plan. This plan can include finding a job, getting housing, taking up hobbies, and building or repairing relationships. Your loved one’s treatment or rehab center should have given him or her ideas and tips for an aftercare plan. If they didn’t, however, create the plan yourself with help from a counselor.

4. Promote a Healthy Lifestyle

Encourage the sober individual’s physical and mental well-being if possible. Cook healthy meals, encourage exercise, stress the importance of good sleep, schedule doctor appointments, and help with social interactions as much as possible (without becoming codependent or telling the individual what to do). The line between guiding and ordering can be a difficult one to walk but do your best to support without commandeering the person’s recovery journey. All choices must be the individual’s own, but you can promote healthy choices with gentle pushes in the right direction.

5. Attend Al-Anon Meetings

Meetings with professionals aren’t just for the person struggling with addiction. Al-Anon is an organization that hosts meetings around the world for people just like you – friends and family members of people with addictions. Becoming a member can give you the support and tools you need to better facilitate long-term recovery for your loved one. Al-Anon meetings can help you feel less alone with your own personal struggles and feelings. It can also lend proven tips for helping someone close to you achieve long-term remission.

6. Get Help

If you believe your loved one is on the verge of relapse, get help. Urge your loved one to return to treatment or at least speak to a counselor. If this isn’t your loved one’s first relapse, consider a program that specializes in helping chronic relapsers, such as Renewal Lodge by Burning Tree. Our treatment programs help people with multiple relapses obtain permanent remission. Contact us today for a confidential discussion.

Sources:
https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/articles/healthy-ways-to-support
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-recovery-coach/201706/dozen-ways-you-can-support-someone-in-recovery

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Dear Renewal Lodge Visitors,

My name is John Bruna, co-founder of the Mindfulness in Recovery® Institute, and more importantly, a grateful member of the recovery community. I am incredibly fortunate to have found my recovery in 1984. Of course, I did not achieve continuous recovery through willpower or my own efforts, but through the guidance and caring support of countless others that selflessly taught me how to live through the 12 Steps.

My journey of recovery brought this once homeless, shame-based, traumatized, insecure young man to a life far beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I discovered self-worth, the joy of helping others, the gifts of parenting and grandparenting, and most importantly the ability to live a meaningful and purposeful life with integrity.

One of the greatest gifts of recovery is that I have the opportunity to give back and help others discover their self-worth, dignity, and the skills to fully live lives that they find truly meaningful. This is the inspiration for developing the skills of Mindfulness in Recovery® (MIR) to meet the needs of new generations struggling with alcohol and other substance use disorders. MIR is a set of evidence-based skills designed to help people fully integrate their tools of recovery in ways that are personalized, practical, and in alignment with their deepest values.

While we train counselors and therapists throughout the United States and abroad, I personally have chosen to work directly with the amazing team and clients at Renewal Lodge to develop the model MIR 12-step program for the nation. I choose Renewal Lodge because of the vision of its mission and the dedication of its team. Renewal Lodge is an extremely rare environment in which the staff embodies the very mindfulness and 12-step practices and skills they offer their clients. The results have been beyond my expectations. It is an honor to be here and I treasure my personal time with every client I meet.

With Gratitude,

John Bruna
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John Bruna
Director of Mindfulness
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