Building Your Support System for Successful Sobriety

Understanding sobriety and addiction recovery begins with understanding what the term “recovery” encompasses. Recovery is a dynamic process that involves achieving the many positive physical, mental, and social changes that happen when you have the help you need to overcome addiction.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) defines recovery as, “a process of change through which an individual achieves abstinence and improved health, wellness and quality of life.” Often, addiction recovery involves going through drug and alcohol rehab, and success depends upon addressing four dimensions: health, home, purpose, and community.

Health

Addiction is a disease, and as such, it affects your physical health. Addiction recovery requires abstinence from alcohol, addictive substances, gambling, or other addictive behaviors as well as making wise choices that support continued physical and emotional well-being. Part of a strong support system for sobriety is having access to healthcare resources for achieving and maintaining good physical health.

Home

The importance of having a safe and stable living situation is hard to overstate. For some people, a safe and stable living situation may be in a halfway house, a sober living house, or transitional living. Your living situation during recovery can be the deciding factor in whether you continue a successful addiction recovery journey. A living situation with accountability, structure, peer support and a sober environment is often the best follow-up to drug and alcohol rehab.

Purpose

Purpose, too, is an essential component of successful sobriety, and for most people this means conducting basic, meaningful activities every day, which may be a job, school, volunteering, caring for family, or pursuing creative endeavors. When you feel your life is meaningless, it is too easy for cravings to push you to find a substance or experience to fill that psychological void.

Community

Having a place in the community and the social networks that offer support, friendship, and hope is another essential dimension to successful addiction recovery. Much of the work of recovery takes place after drug and alcohol rehab. Positive community activities that support sobriety may include safe and sober holiday events, participation in support groups, working on service projects, and often working with a sobriety sponsor through a 12-step program. Choose a support group local to you. Yonkers drug rehab resources and support groups are available for those currently looking for assistance. Feel free to contact us for assistance in finding support groups near you.

Hope Is the Foundation for Successful Recovery

Of course, none of this will work if you have little hope that the many challenges of sobriety can be met and overcome. Addiction recovery must address the whole person and the home and community in which you live. Hope is more than simply “wishing” for recovery to occur, but is a strong foundation for recovery that encourages meaningful action and the hard work of pursuing a sober lifestyle. Having hope for a positive future requires:

• Accepting your current situation
• Listening to others’ stories of success
• Looking for a positive direction in life
• Developing an actionable plan for fulfilling goals

If this sounds like a tall order, it is. But rest assured, addiction recovery is possible, and it is possible to construct the elements of a successful, sober life, free from substances and addictive behaviors. Drug and alcohol rehab is not easy, and in many ways, it is only the beginning of successful recovery. But addiction services that address physical health, home life, purpose, and a sense of community exist, and they help people from all backgrounds succeed in overcoming addiction every single day. If you want to know more about sober living and how to achieve it, we encourage you to contact us at any time.