Building and maintaining a sober support system is crucial to the addiction recovery process. Here at Atlanta Recovery Place, we understand the importance of this support system and want our clients to know this as well! Our hope is by completing addiction treatment, our clients can start to build a sober support system that will help them maintain their recovery.
Building a Sober Support System
Building a sober support system is twofold: it includes rebuilding broken relationships and making new sober friends. When mending a broken relationship, keep in mind that addiction doesn’t just affect the user, it also affects the relationships that the user has with other people. Substance abuse can damage the lives and relationships around the user. This can lead to emotional pain and unhealthy coping habits. The good thing about recovery and sobriety is that you have the ability to rebuild all of the relationships that have been affected by the substance and addiction. Some ways to regain trust within individuals and their relationships with you are:
- Having empathy – Putting yourself in other people’s shoes is so important in trying to understand their feelings and what they are going through. This helps you to not be biased with your own opinion.
- Be patient with others – Being patient with the people around you is crucial in rebuilding relationships. Understand that they may not be willing to jump right back in with a relationship with you. Taking time and putting in effort to rebuild those relationships is important in showing others that you care.
- Forgive yourself – In rebuilding relationships, you need to understand that not everyone will be willing to work with you and forgive you, but it is important to forgive yourself. Understand that you aren’t the same person that you were while using and there may be some hiccups along the way, but continually striving to succeed is what is important.
- You can only change yourself – Investing in yourself is super important. Understand that you can only change yourself. You can’t change those around you, but you can change who you are around. You need to invest in a healthy support system, that wants you to succeed and is there for you when you struggle.
Rebuilding broken relationships is important, but creating new and healthy relationships is equally as important!
Why It’s Important to Have Sober Friends
Having a sober and healthy support system is crucial during the recovery process. We know that the recovery process is not all sunshine and rainbows, so having a support system that has the same morals of you is crucial, especially in regards to being sober and sobriety. Having sober friends can not only prevent a future relapse, but it can also prevent loneliness and boredom without any kind of peer pressure involved. The peer pressure that you should be receiving is accountability. It’s a different kind of peer pressure, it’s the one that makes you want to succeed and make your friends/family proud of you.
A sober support system will tell you the truth, and the truth may hurt sometimes, but it’s important that this support system doesn’t sugar coat anything. Having sober friends means having honest relationships that aren’t afraid to tell you how it is regardless of how you feel. This support system can help you build and normalize a sober routine, and help you when you get out of that routine. Building these friendships are crucial and having others to lean on during a time like this is helpful in the recovery process.
Get Sober at Atlanta Recovery Place
Here at Atlanta Recovery Place, we want to help you succeed in every possible way in regards to your recovery process and sobriety. We want to help you find a support system that meets your needs, works on bettering you, and wants to help you stay accountable and succeed in your recovery process. Reach out to us today to start your recovery process and receive help in becoming successful in your sobriety.
