Do’s and Don’ts after Rehab care

Rehab is not the final destination in recovery from an addiction. The consequences of addiction must be faced on a daily basis even after treatment at rehab and achieving sobriety. While this stage is a mixed bag of emotions for both the patients and caretakers or family members, there are many ways you can help a loved one with after rehab. That said, helping someone in recovery could be a challenging task as you need to deal with your own stressors along with carrying out your responsibilities. 

As we all know a better planning comes a long way in making the task at hand easier. In this post, we will try to help you with some dos and don’ts if you have someone coming home from recovery. 

Prepare well

Prepare well in advance to welcome your loved ones home by creating a tidy and comfortable atmosphere that also offers them ample sunlight and air. Try to establish a daily routine for them that keeps them occupied. 

Gain knowledge about recovery

It really helps to set realistic expectations once your loved one returns to sober and wants to continue his/her sobriety. Therefore, try to learn as much as you can about recovery and maintenance by researching and reading about addiction and any co-occurring disorders your loved one may have. Also, understand common relapse triggers so you can enlighten your loved one to cope with them or avoid them altogether.

Identify and cultivate interests

The recovering addict’s life during his/her addiction might have revolved around the substance of abuse before recovery. Hence, they might not have had a chance to identify their interests in life. Spend time with your loved ones to help identify their interests and do the needful to keep them occupied with their hobbies and interests. Interests and hobbies are rewarding activities that keep them from focusing on cravings or negative emotions. You might also want to consider picking up the same hobbies so you can spend time together, re-connect and build new memories together.

Uphold ongoing treatment

A recovered addict can keep up with recovery only as long as they are in touch with their counsellor and the underlying issue of their addiction is constantly being addressed. Encourage your loved one to meet the counsellors at scheduled times and join support groups who motivate to keep up the sobriety. Being around others who are facing the same challenges can benefit your loved one with the much-needed peer motivation during early recovery. Also joining the same groups helps you apply the same kind of philosophies at home.

Encourage them to self-groom

Self-love is critical to recovery. Encouraging your loved ones to focus on self by exercising, practicing meditation, sleeping well and choosing nutritious food helps them to recover well. Also, meditation helps restructure certain parts of the brain that helps in healthier ways of coping with stress and eliminates cravings. Nutritious food fills the body with energy and vitality and also cures insomnia. 

Don’t push normalcy

Each person is different. The recovery period could be shorter in some and longer in others. The response stimuli entirely depend upon the biological make of the persons. So, instead of hurrying the recovery, it would be wise to go with the flow. All the while it really helps to remind your loved one that so many people have resumed normalcy after addiction and he/she shall feel normal again.

Don’t keep memories of addiction

Eliminating previous memories of addiction is the most crucial step in helping your loved one maintain sobriety. You need to prepare in advance by throwing out the remaining alcohol, drugs if any from the house. If you need to keep prescription drugs at home, make sure you are keeping them out of the recovering addict’s sight. Fill the house with positive energy by introducing new plants and inspiring books. Ultimately, you want to make sure that you are not creating opportunities for your loved one to abuse again.

Don’t Use Substances around the Person

It takes a lot of effort and sacrifice to help maintain your loved one’s sobriety. To avoid substance use around them is important to avoid relapse in them. Find activities that you both can do together without substance use.

Don’t trigger and/or enable the person

Be careful not to engage in triggering behaviour that creates cravings for your loved one. Also, do not enable them to re-abuse substances. For example, if a loved one loses their job due to alcoholism, enabling behaviour would be to offer them financial assistance. You’ll help your loved ones more by making them accountable for their actions and letting them learn from their mistakes.

Don’t dwell on the past

When your loved one is back from a rehab after struggling with addiction and finally achieving sobriety, they must experience a welcoming, positive environment. It’s best to avoid digging up pain from the past as your loved one heals. Instead, focus on rebuilding your relationship by creating new memories and sharing a substance-free future.

Family and friends play a crucial part in an addict’s journey towards recovery. Although they may face some ups and downs during the process of recovery, it’s vital for the family and friends to be optimistic and offer to navigate the recovery together.

If you need to know more about helping your loved ones, feel free to contact Phoenix rehab.