How to Build a Support Network in Early Recovery

Early recovery is a pivotal stage in the journey toward lasting sobriety. It’s during this time that individuals often face the challenge of adjusting to life without substances while also working to repair relationships and establish healthy habits. One of the most critical components of successful early recovery is building a strong support network. A reliable support system not only offers encouragement but also serves as a foundation for maintaining sobriety during difficult moments. Here’s how you can create a support network that will empower your recovery journey.

Why a Support Network Matters in Early Recovery

In early recovery, it’s common to feel isolated, especially if past relationships were centered around substance use. Building a new network of supportive individuals is vital because:

  • It provides accountability to help prevent relapse.
  • It reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation.
  • It connects you with people who understand and support your goals.
  • It offers a safe space to express emotions and seek advice.

A solid support network can be the difference between feeling overwhelmed by challenges or finding the strength to overcome them.

Steps to Building a Support Network in Early Recovery

1. Go to Group Therapy: Group therapy is a cornerstone of many addiction treatment programs and a great way to meet others who are also in early recovery. Sharing experiences in a structured setting allows you to connect with peers who understand what you’re going through. The Delray Center for Recovery offers group therapy sessions that create a safe environment to build connections while learning essential coping strategies.

2. Reconnect with Trusted Friends and Family: While some relationships may need to be reevaluated, early recovery is a time to lean on those who have always had your best interests at heart. Rebuilding trust with loved ones takes time, but their unwavering support can be a powerful motivator to stay on track.

3. Participate in Recovery Communities: Joining local or online recovery communities, such as 12-step programs or SMART Recovery groups, can help you connect with people committed to sobriety. These groups not only provide support but also offer opportunities to form friendships with individuals who share similar values and goals.

4. Seek Professional Support: Therapists and counselors who specialize in addiction recovery can be invaluable members of your support network. At the Delray Center for Recovery, we offer personalized therapy services tailored to the unique challenges of early recovery. Our professionals work closely with clients to address underlying mental health issues and create strategies for long-term success.

5. Set Boundaries with Toxic Relationships: Not everyone from your past will support your sobriety. It’s important to set boundaries with individuals who may encourage substance use or undermine your progress. Surrounding yourself with positive influences is important during this vulnerable stage.

How Delray Center for Recovery Can Help

At the Delray Center for Recovery, we understand that early recovery can feel overwhelming. That’s why our comprehensive programs are designed to support individuals at every stage of their journey. From group therapy to individual counseling, we offer a wide range of services to help you build a strong support network and develop the skills necessary for sustained recovery.

Additionally, we provide family therapy to help repair and strengthen relationships with loved ones. Our holistic approach addresses the physical, emotional, and psychological aspects of recovery, ensuring that our clients have the resources they need to thrive.

The Lifelong Benefits of a Support Network

The connections you build during early recovery will continue to benefit you long after the initial stages of treatment. A strong support network can help you navigate life’s ups and downs while reinforcing your commitment to sobriety.

Remember, you don’t have to face recovery alone. By reaching out to trusted individuals and professional resources, you can create a foundation of support that will carry you through even the most challenging moments. The Delray Center for Recovery is here to help you every step of the way.

If you’re ready to start building your support network and achieve long-term sobriety, contact the Delray Center for Recovery today.

How to Help Someone in Recovery from Addiction

Your loved one has been through a lot. They have been struggling with the impacts of addiction in their lives for a long time. And you’re so proud of them for choosing to get the help they need and begin their journey to recovery. Undoubtedly, you want to be there for your loved one who’s in recovery from addiction – they’ve made so much progress in just simply deciding to get help and clean.

But, how can you do that? There are many things you can do to help a loved one in recovery including:

Learn More About Addiction and Recovery from Addiction

Your loved one in recovery will need as much support as they can get. Support systems are crucial to recovery success as your loved one will need loved ones around them for encouragement, support, and accountability. But, before you can offer your loved one this kind of support, it can help you to understand more about addiction so that you can give them the specific help they need. Knowing more about how addiction develops and how it affects a person can help guide you in knowing what your loved one may need. For example, it can help you to understand what behaviors may be considered enabling and what behaviors are actually conducive to recovery. Furthermore, understanding addiction can help you better relate to what your loved one is experiencing so that you can build more trust and they are more likely to lean on you for support.

Help Them Develop Routines and a Schedule

Staying active and engaged can help your loved one focus during recovery steer clear of triggers and stay on the right track. You can offer your loved one help in developing routines and activities that can help them stay more focused. Consider asking your loved one about things they’d like to do to fill up their schedule and offer to do these things with them. And, help them develop a daily routine and schedule around their work or schooling activities, such as going to the gym, getting out in nature, meditating, etc. When your loved one feels that they are encouraged to keep a schedule, they may be more open to sticking to it.

Set and Communicate Your Boundaries

Healthy boundaries are important, especially when it comes to helping a loved one in recovery. Your loved one needs to know what is and isn’t acceptable in your relationship so that there are clear expectations. However, your loved one can’t know your boundaries unless you clearly communicate them, so don’t avoid letting them know what your boundaries are. Some boundaries can include drinking around them, not giving them housing if they are relapsing, etc. While you can love them throughout it all, there needs to be some lines set into place so that your loved one understands that your help and support are conditional to their recovery.

Attend Family or Relationship Therapy

Family therapy is a great asset to help you and your loved one talk about stressors and emotions that can come up throughout the recovery journey. While addiction has undoubtedly affected your loved one, it affects you too, and it’s important to get help yourself. This is where family therapy comes in to give you a safe and supportive atmosphere to share how you’re feeling. And, get helpful input on how to move forward.

Getting Help From The Delray Center for Recovery

Is your loved one ready to get help? The Delray Center for Recovery offers outpatient addiction treatment programs for individuals who are ready to move on from the impacts of addiction. And, we provide help for their loved ones and family members too! Learn more about our outpatient addiction treatment programs right on our website today.

Why a Sleep Routine is Essential for Addicts in Recovery

Sleep issues are a big issue for people in the active cycle of addiction. Whether it’s too much sleep or not enough sleep, sleep issues can impact a person’s daily life and bring about debilitating physical and mental health symptoms. During treatment, it’s important for addicts in recovery to understand the impacts of sleep. And, determine ways to adjust their sleeping habits in order to give themselves the best chance of recovery success.

Why Healthy Sleep Patterns are so Important

What’s so necessary about a healthy sleep pattern anyway? Well, the reason humans need sleep is to regenerate energy and give both our minds and bodies rest. During sleep, our bodies heal from the previous day and are prepared for the day to come. Without the recharge that sleep allows for, our bodies are not prepared for the psychological processing and physical functioning they are required to perform.

Average sleep for an adult human is 7 to 9 hours a night. Certainly, it’s not always feasible to get this amount, but this should be the length of time sleep you aim to get on a daily basis. When you consistently don’t get enough sleep, this can lead to issues like insomnia and sleep deprivation – both of which can lead to the development of both physical and mental health issues including depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, diabetes, and heart disease. Getting enough sleep is essential for good health on both mental and physical levels.

The Effects Addiction Has on Sleep

Abusing addictive substances can certainly lead to a lack of sleep. This is because addictive substances can affect our bodily functioning, keeping us from getting the sleep we need to remain mentally and physically healthy. Some of the effects that substances can have on sleep include:

Alcohol: Alcohol is a depressant that can keep us from falling into a deep and rejuvenating sleep (REM).

Stimulants: Stimulants like cocaine and speed keep the body and mind from drifting into sleep, keeping the body up and active.

Withdrawal: Withdrawing from specific substances, for example, opioids, can keep people from getting a healthy amount of sleep. And, since users of these substances will often stop using after a binge, they may find themselves having a hard time getting a healthy amount of sleep, leading to the negative effects that not enough sleep can bring.

The Importance of Sleep for Addicts in Recovery

Sure, when a person is in the active cycle of addiction, it is easy not to get enough sleep. But, this is true also for people who are in recovery. However, it’s essential to learn how to get enough sleep during treatment so that these habits can be implemented into a daily, sober life. When a person in recovery doesn’t get enough sleep, they are at a higher risk for developing concurring mental health issues like anxiety or depression, which can make the recovery process even more challenging. Learning new behaviors through treatment, like setting a sleep schedule, can help to reduce this risk.

Getting Help With Sleep in Recovery

If you find that you’re in the initial stages of recovery or are wanting to become sober and need help with sleep, treatment can help. Therapy and other resources are available to recovering individuals at Delray Center for Recovery so that individuals can learn the importance of sleep and how to achieve a healthy sleep schedule.

Relapse Prevention Strategies

No matter how hard you work during your time in our addiction treatment Delray program, you still run a high risk of relapse after you leave us. Preventing addiction relapse requires a plan, and we work hard to give you the tools you need to succeed. 12-step programs and recovery support group meetings are useful, but they’re far from your only option when it comes to relapse prevention.

Long-Term Recovery Counseling At Addiction Treatment Delray

Our addiction treatment Delray Beach program lays the foundation for your long-term recovery from addiction. But if you think that residential addiction treatment is going to cure your problem in just a few weeks or months, you’re mistaken. Addiction is a chronic disease, and it requires ongoing care.

That’s why many people who leave inpatient rehab in Delray Beach enter a local sober living facility. These facilities provide a substance-free, supportive environment for addicts in the early stages of recovery. When you first graduate from our program for addiction treatment in Delray Beach, you will continue to need recovery support and comprehensive treatment to avoid relapse. If you’re one of the many recovering addicts who doesn’t have a supportive, substance-free home environment to return to after rehab, spending several months, a year or even longer in a sober living facility could be essential for helping you adjust to your new drug and alcohol free life.

Even if you don’t choose to enter a halfway house, you’ll still need ongoing addiction treatment in the form of an outpatient program, recovery support groups and individual counseling with a therapist who understands addiction issues. The longer you stay in treatment, the lower your risk of relapse.

Mental Illness Treatment

Around half of people who struggle with addiction also have another mental health disorder, like depression, bipolar disorder or anxiety. These dual diagnosis patients often find themselves going back to rehab over and over, as their untreated and often undiagnosed mental health symptoms mean they will almost certainly experience a relapse after treatment. If you are suffering from a mental health disorder in addition to your substance abuse disorder, you need mental health treatment in order to experience real and lasting recovery from addiction.

At our addiction treatment Delray program, we understand the special needs of dual diagnosis patients. We are prepared offer you the treatment you need so that you can recover from both your mental health disorder and your substance abuse disorder.

Emotional Regulation Training

It’s easy enough to tell a recovering addict to avoid the people, places and things that remind him or her of drug and alcohol use. It’s a little harder to give that recovering addict the skills necessary to put that advice into practice.

Addicts often have trouble regulating their emotions – that’s why they turned a substance abuse in the first place, to cope with difficult feelings that they don’t know how to control or manage. But, in order to succeed in recovery, school, work and life, you need to be able to not only regulate, but manage and control your emotional responses. You also need to be able to ask for, and give, help.

Our program for addiction treatment in Delray Beach offers recovering addicts the life skills training they need to learn to regulate their emotions, and manage their feelings without acting out. We go beyond the mere educational approach to offer recovering addicts hands-on experiential therapy. This treatment allows recovering addicts to learn new emotional and interpersonal skills by interacting with others, in a safe and supportive environment.

Maintenance and Anti-Craving Medications

Modern medical science has given us a number of medications that can be used to prevent addiction relapse. Naltrexone, for example, can be used to negate the effects of alcohol or opiate drugs. Acamprosate is another prescription drug that’s used to reduce the desire to drink in alcoholics, and to help restore the brain to normal functioning in sobriety. In addition to helping manage cravings, these drugs make it easier for recovering addicts to bounce back from possible relapse, regain control of their substance abuse, put into practice the skills they learned in our addiction treatment Delray program and return to recovery.

For opiate addicts in particular, maintenance medications like Suboxone can be useful to help recovering addicts avoid withdrawal while they get the treatment they need. Once on Suboxone, recovering opiate addicts are able to return to a normal lifestyle pretty much right away.

It’s never too late to recover from addiction for good, no matter how many times you’ve suffered a relapse.

Call our addiction treatment Delray program today at 888-699-5679 to find out how we can help you achieve a lasting recovery.

Study Finds You Can Quit Smoking During Addiction Treatment Delray Offers

It’s not uncommon for people in our addiction treatment Delray Beach program, or in any addiction treatment program for that matter, to be heavy smokers. Recovering addicts and alcoholics are well-known for their propensity to smoke – and smoke a lot. Traditionally, programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program have discouraged concurrent treatment for drug addiction and tobacco addiction. The concern we’ve had is that attempting to treat both addictions at once could drive people out of addiction treatment altogether.

But the results of a new study suggest that treatment for nicotine addiction can be a successful part of programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program. Incorporating nicotine addiction treatment into programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program can reduce recovering addicts’ risk of smoking-related diseases, and could even improve their chances of overall success in our recovery.

Smoking Death Rate Highest in Substance Abusers

Smoking causes one in five deaths each year in the U.S., but substance abuse patients have the dubious distinction of dying from smoking-related causes at a much higher rate than any other segment of the population. As of 2008, 63 percent of people with a substance abuse disorder said that they used tobacco. Rates of tobacco use in the general population were about 28 percent.

Despite the high rate of tobacco use among substance abuse patients, most programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program do not include smoking cessation therapy in treatment.

Researchers Study Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation in

Addiction Treatment Programs

Researchers from the National Institute of Drug Abuse conducted a study on the effectiveness of smoking cessation treatment for methamphetamine and cocaine addicts in programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program. Cocaine and methamphetamine addicts were randomly chosen from programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program and assigned to a 10-week smoking cessation therapy program. The program involved weekly counseling sessions, antidepressant medication, nicotine inhalers and contingency management. Contingency management is a technique used in programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program where recovering addicts are rewarded for their abstinence.

The participants received drug and carbon monoxide testing during the study to measure the success of both the drug and smoking cessation treatment they were receiving, but during the 10 weeks and at three and six month follow-ups. Just as in our addiction treatment Delray Beach program, study participants also self-reported treatment outcomes.

Smoking Cessation Helps Patients in Programs Like Our Addiction Treatment Delray Beach Program

The study, which was published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that patients in programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program enjoyed a great deal of success from nicotine cessation therapy during drug addiction treatment. Not only did the smoking cessation therapy not interfere with the effectiveness of the drug addiction treatment, it actually improved drug addiction treatment outcomes for patients in programs like our addiction treatment Delray Beach program.

Make Smoking Cessation a Part of Your Addiction Treatment Delray Beach Program

If you need drug addiction treatment, our addiction treatment Delray Beach program offers a range of evidence based, alternative and holistic treatments to help you overcome addiction and get your life back. With the results of this study, it’s now clear that smoking cessation therapy can and should be a part of addiction treatment for anyone who needs and wants it. Our addiction treatment Delray Beach program offers a comprehensive, all-natural smoking cessation treatment involving auricular (ear) acupuncture. Ear acupuncture has been proven to help treat nicotine and heroin addiction.

When you receive smoking cessation therapy from our addiction treatment Delray Beach facility, you’ll receive six 75-minute sessions of auricular acupuncture. You can receive your smoking cessation treatment in a group or individual setting. Self-massage, breathing techniques, visualization, and mind-body exercises form a part of our comprehensive smoking cessation therapy. The smoking cessation treatment we offer at our addiction treatment Delray Beach is painless.

If you’re struggling with drug and nicotine addiction, our addiction treatment Delray Beach facility can help. Call us today at 888-699-5679 to learn more.