Tag Archive: healthy relationships

  1. Supporting Proper Aftercare for Your Adolescent

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    An adolescent’s path to long-term sobriety begins with a rehab program, and continues for months or years afterwards with aftercare therapy. Proper aftercare support is therefore an essential element in any adolescent addiction recovery treatment program. Friends and family members can assure the success of that therapy by contributing their efforts to the recovering adolescent addict’s aftercare support.

    “Recovering Addicts”
    All recovering addicts, and particularly adolescents, should continue to receive individual and group therapy for their addiction problems and any other psychological issues they are working through following their release from an early recovery program. That therapy will help them to understand any destructive habits and behavior in their lives that contributed to their addiction while simultaneously giving them the tools to deal with that behavior. An adolescent’s family members who have no prior background or experience with addiction recovery and who are experiencing their own emotional upheavals as they deal with an addicted adolescent family member can find solace and support in family group therapy programs. A family will often need to adjust its own responses and reactions to an adolescent’s addiction problems in order to create a positive and supportive environment and to avoid negative emotional responses to destructive behavior. Discussing these issues in a family support group setting will help an adolescent’s parents and siblings to give a recovering adolescent addict the aftercare support he needs in his own home.

    “Addiction Problems”
    Adolescents who are recovering from addiction problems will also need to learn how to develop and maintain healthy relationships with friends and family members. While they were still addicted, adolescents might have used relationships solely as a basis to procure drugs or alcohol. Family members who enabled an adolescent’s addictions will need to learn how to help in a positive manner without succumbing to requests and entreaties for drugs or alcohol or for funds to buy them. This can be a difficult experience for any family, as adolescent addicts are generally adept at manipulating parents and siblings into supporting their drug or alcohol habits. Proper aftercare support requires families to be firm in rejecting these requests and in teaching a recovering adolescent addict to form healthy relationships in which they are not merely using their family members as enablers.

    “Proper Aftercare”
    Parents can also provide proper aftercare support by creating a healthy environment in their homes with nutritious meals and activities that engage the whole family in activities that do not involve drugs or alcohol. Parents also need to take special care to remove any prescription pharmaceuticals from their homes or to keep those products away from a recovering adolescent addict. Many adolescent addicts begin their addiction problems by using a parent’s or sibling’s prescription painkillers, or by raiding a family’s supply of alcohol. Proper aftercare support requires a family to make certain sacrifices, but the benefits from those sacrifices are beyond questioning.

    Sustain Recovery Services in southern California helps adolescents and young adults to defeat drug addiction and alcoholism. We can provide many additional suggestions to help families provide proper aftercare support for their addicted adolescents who are trying to stay sober. Please see our website or call us at 949-407-9052 for more information about our services or to arrange a confidential consultation with one of our counselors.

  2. Relationships in Early Recovery

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    Relationships in Early RecoveryRecovering from drug addiction or alcoholism and achieving genuine sobriety involves far more than just staying away from drugs and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol consume every aspect of life until they decide to get sober and enter recovery for their addictions. Jobs, friendships, finances, and most significantly, their relationships with people close to them are affected. Young adult addicts will lie to, cheat, and take advantage of the people who are closest to them to support their drug or alcohol habits. This conduct erodes and destroys relationships and impairs their ability to form new and meaningful relationships. Recovery is a process of healing and learning. Healing old relationships and learning how to fully participate in new ones are part of this process.

    Relationships in Early Recovery

    Early recovery is full of mood swings, difficult experiences, and drastic change. From 30 to 60 to 90 days, an adolescent in recovery changes from one day to the next. Being in a romantic relationship during that time can disturb the natural and necessary flow of recovery. It is recommended forming any new romantic relationships should be abstained from for at least a year. This time should be used to learn and develop new tools to address stress, anger, and other challenging emotions. Adding a new relationship into this mix can impair both the development of those tools and the growth of the relationship. Too many relapses are the result of a breakup or romantic rejection in early recovery. Emotions are fragile as are identities, senses of self-esteem and self-worth. Sex, affection, and attention can feel as good as substances during vulnerable times. Unfortunately, they can leave a young adult feeling as broken and confused as they did before.

    Working to reconcile existing primary relationships with friends and family members should take precedence. Addiction is seen as a family disease and an illness that impacts everyone in an addict’s life. Neglecting to heal these relationships can result in lingering anger, shame, or resentment within them. Preventing past relationships from moving forward complicates the ability to create new ones.

     

    Sustain Recovery Services in southern California helps adolescents and young adults to recover from drug and alcohol addiction through extended care services. Please see our website or call us at 949-407-9052 for more information on how we can assist in helping you or a loved one build a new life with a solid foundation in sobriety.

The people at Sustain Recovery are truly passionate about their work. They put all their love, energy and spiritual strength in to it. They continue to support me today as I continue my ongoing journey in my personal recovery. I now have over a year of sobriety, my own apartment, a job, true friends and a support network that is always available to me. Although all that stuff is great, what matters most today is that I love myself and have the ability to love others. Thank you to all who had a hand and heart in Sustain Recovery

Jenn
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