Supporting a Loved One on their Recovery Journey
We know it probably wasn’t easy to convince your loved one that they needed to look into rehabs in Missouri. Many people are reluctant, overwhelmed, and scared at the prospect of drug and alcohol rehab. Once they finally get over those hurdles, though, it can be a huge relief when a loved one finally agrees to seek treatment. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your work is over when they walk through the doors of the rehab center, though. You have a lot more to support your loved one through.
Rehabs in Missouri do a lot of great work, but adding in family support on top of the benefits of drug and alcohol rehab can make a huge difference. Completing a first course of treatment is far from the end of recovery. So, it’s important to encourage your loved one to continue on their recovery journey once they return home.
We also wanted to include some helpful advice for taking care of yourself, too. Even though rehabs in Missouri can be an incredible resource, supporting a loved one through their recovery journey can take a toll. We’ll walk you through a few things you can do to maintain your own well-being. But first, let’s focus on the loved on in treatment.
While they’re in rehabs in Missouri…
Your work supporting a loved one’s recovery journey probably began well before they actually entered drug and alcohol rehab. But once they’ve begun a program (and for the purposes of this piece, we’re assuming it’s an inpatient program that lasts a month or more), there are certain steps you can take to support them, even if you can’t see them very often, or at all.
Communicate.
The first piece of this tip is keeping in touch with your loved one in ways the drug and alcohol rehab recommends. Whether that’s writing letters, visiting on family days, or any other mode of communication, you should contact your loved one during their treatment. Many drug and alcohol rehab centers will limit the amount of time that clients can use their phones, and there might be long stretches where they can’t use them at all. Letter writing can be a good alternative. Especially if you live in another state and rehabs in Missouri feel very far away, writing heartfelt and encouraging letters can be a big boost.
The other side of communication is with the rehabs in Missouri themselves. You should be in touch with your loved one’s care providers so they can give you more specific information and advice than we can provide here.
Encourage them to complete treatment.
When you’re communicating with your loved one in drug and alcohol rehab, you want to make sure you’re not leading with any of the negative emotions you probably have about them and their addiction. It’s natural to have a lot of pain and anger surrounding what your loved one did in the depths of their addiction, but that’s not what they need to hear now. Make sure they know you’re rooting for them.
They might reach out to you and express a desire to leave treatment early. That’s usually not the best choice, and in many cases, you should encourage them to stay through the entire drug and alcohol rehab program. You can remind them of the reasons they chose to enter treatment and express support of that decision. Of course, not every program is right for everybody, and if rehabs in Missouri aren’t showing an interest in customizing your loved one’s treatment plan to meet their specific needs, then you might want to find a different drug and alcohol rehab facility.
It can be hard to know exactly what to say and do in tough situations like these. If you have any questions, rehabs in Missouri should have more specific recommendations, and your loved one’s treatment team are always a great resource for any questions you have.
Participate in family therapy, if possible.
Many rehabs in Missouri try to get the family members of their clients involved in the rehab process through family therapy. If that’s possible at your loved one’s drug and alcohol rehab facility, then definitely take advantage of it. This can be a great way for both of you to learn to communicate better with one another. It will also signal to your loved one that you’re committed to being by their side through their recovery journey.
Get educated.
It can help your loved one tremendously if you have a baseline understanding of addiction and the drug and alcohol rehab process. Some rehabs in Missouri will offer classes or other educational materials on what their clients are going through to help their families better understand.
These classes or groups are different from family therapy because they won’t involve the loved one in treatment, and they’re purely educational. The idea is that if you can understand what your loved one is going through, you’ll be in a better place to provide the support they need.
If you don’t have access to those kinds of classes, though, that doesn’t mean you can’t educate yourself on drug and alcohol rehab and addiction in general. There are plenty of resources online — just make sure you’re using a reliable source, like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Join a support group.
Remember how we said you were going to need some support, too? This is one of the steps you can take to ensure that you’re in the best place possible to help your loved one on their drug and alcohol rehab journey. Find a local group for friends and families of people with the kind of substance use disorder your loved one is struggling with, and get involved.
Once they leave rehabs in Missouri…
After your loved one has completed an initial inpatient stay at a drug and alcohol rehab center, you’ll probably feel a lot of things about them coming home. Here are some steps you can take to help nudge them toward ongoing sobriety.
Don’t use substances around them.
Maybe this is a no-brainer, but it’s a really important thing to keep in mind. Especially if your loved one is struggling with a common substance, like alcohol, there are going to be plenty of temptations for them to relapse (we’ll talk more about what to do in that situation a little later). The time you spend with them should consist of activities that don’t involve any of those temptations. It’s likely that you won’t be able to avoid every single one of their triggers, but avoiding addictive substances when you’re spending time together is a great place to start.
Listen to what they need.
You’re not going to know what to do in every circumstance, and that’s okay. Keep that line of communication open. Don’t be afraid to ask your loved one what kind of support they want. They might bring something up that you’d never even thought of.
Encourage attending a support group.
Getting out of a drug and alcohol rehab center doesn’t mean the recovery journey is complete. Far from it. Rehabs in Missouri should put together some kind of aftercare plan for their clients because it’s so important for them to receive ongoing support and care. One part of that plan could be support groups, like Alcoholics Anonymous.
A great way to help someone on their recovery journey is encouraging them to go to support group meetings and facilitating that whenever possible. Maybe you can offer to watch their kids during the meetings, or you could ask if they’d like a ride there. Whatever little things you can do to help can go a long way.
Make time for self care.
Remember how we said you’ll need to take steps to ensure you’re in the best place possible to support your loved one through recovery? This is one of those. Make sure you’re taking time to recharge your batteries and taking inventory of your own needs. Don’t get so caught up in supporting someone else that you forget to take care of yourself.
If you started attending a support group for the friends and family of those with substance use disorders while your loved one was in drug and alcohol rehab, continue going. Make sure you have your own support systems in place so that you can be the best you can be for your loved one in recovery.
Set a routine.
For those who live with the person they’re trying to support through recovery, this one is especially important. The environment in an inpatient drug and alcohol rehab center is highly structured, so adapting back to the looser “real world” can be a big adjustment. You can help by creating a routine at home. Don’t overdo it and try to mimic a treatment environment, but having a few set times for family and household activities (like cleaning or meals) can be helpful.
Ongoing Support
The days and weeks following your loved one’s return from rehabs in Missouri aren’t the end of their recovery. Far from it. Here, we’ve got some tips for long-term support.
Anticipate relapses.
We’re not saying that relapses are inevitable, but they are common. It’s fairly normal for someone to need multiple courses and forms of drug and alcohol rehab before they reach lasting sobriety.
If your loved one does start using drugs or alcohol again, then you should be prepared to react accordingly. It can be tempting to act out in frustration, anger, and fear when you see a loved one going down the wrong path, but that’s not what they need at their lowest moments. They’re likely much harder on themselves than you could ever be on them.
Instead, show compassion and caring. Their confidence has likely taken a huge hit, and you can remind them of all the times they’ve overcome difficulties before. They can do it again. Remain encouraging rather than judgmental.
Forgive.
This is perhaps the heaviest one on this list. It might happen at an earlier stage of recovery, but it’s also an ongoing conversation, especially if there are relapses in the mix.
It’s important for many people with substance use disorders to seek forgiveness from the people they hurt while their addiction went unchecked. Many times, the whole family suffers a great deal of hurt that runs really deep — lying, cheating, and stealing are all common offenses. That kind of pain doesn’t go away overnight. You can start by using all that you learned about addiction in a previous step as a basis for empathy and understanding.
It’s going to take a lot more than one blog post to mend these types of relationships. Ongoing counseling and support groups can offer more help than we can here.
Rehabs in Missouri are only the beginning.
Now you know that your job as part of the support system for those in recovery is a long and difficult road. Of course, it’s not all about you, but you have an important role to play during, directly after, and for a long time following your loved one’s time in rehabs in Missouri.
Recovery is a long, difficult journey, and success requires as much support as possible. That means you should be as involved in the process as you can, attending family group therapy, communicating with your loved one and their treatment team, and learning all you can about addiction and its treatment. Then, when your loved one comes home, you can offer some structure and a kind listening ear, encouraging them to seek out further treatment if need be. If relapses happen, you should hopefully now be prepared to meet them with love instead of frustration.
That’s a tall order. You’ll need your own support in order to provide the best help possible, so make sure you have self care routines in place and ways you can tend to your own mental health in the process. With all this in mind, you and your loved one should be prepared to take this recovery head-on. If you need a place to start, you can contact us here.
