Step-by-step on How to Support a Recovering Alcoholic or Addict in 7 Ways

If your loved one is an alcoholic or addict and you are willing to support their recovery, you should know the best ways in which to do so without crossing boundaries, enabling destructive behaviors, or accidentally contributing to their relapse. Your goal is to offer an accepting and supportive community in order for them to feel comfortable in their new trajectory.

Referencing Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) 2016 survey on national drug use and health, 1 in 10 American people aged 18 to 25 were heavy alcohol users, and 1 in 4 adults used an illicit substance within the last 30 days of the survey being conducted.

In the 2001 – 2002 National Institute on Alcoholism Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) survey on factors of abstinent and non-abstinent recovery, 35.9% of adults in the United States with alcoholism are now in full recovery after a year’s time. As reported by the Surgeon General, “50% of adults who once met diagnostic criteria for a substance use disorder… are currently in stable remission” after one year.

That being said, unfortunately, relapse of alcoholism or of a substance happens. Around 40-60% of patients being treated for alcoholism or substance use disorder relapse, as said by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

How to Help a Recovering Alcoholic or Addict

In the following sections, we will list out several approaches you can take to help your loved one with their recovery, whether it is from alcoholism or substance abuse. These approaches coincide with traditional twelve-step programs and principles to better ascertain the early stages an addict will traverse in their recovery. To give a detailed look at these early stages to recovery, expect a recovering alcoholic or addict to experience:

• • Admitting and recognizing they suffer from alcoholism or substance use disorder
  • Having a desire to stop drinking or using as well as seek treatment
  • Potentially completing an in-patient program
  • Potentially joining a sober living program

Additionally, to support your loved one with their recovery, we will cover how you can interact and engage with them along their journey, such as:

• • Educating yourself on their condition
  • Creating a safe environment for them
  • Setting realistic goals and expectations
  • The benefits of building a sober support network
  • The importance of regularly attending twelve-step meetings
  • How to build new habits and begin new hobbies that do not center around alcohol or drug use
  • How to continue supporting your loved ones without enabling them

Lastly, we will discuss the long-term expectations of recovery. These includes:

• • How to spot early warning signs of relapse
  • How to help your loved one avoid relapse
  • How to support your loved one if they do relapse

The Early Stages of Recovering from Alcoholism or Substance Addiction

Understanding the early stages of recovering from either alcoholism or substance addiction will better enable you to help your loved one along their path to recovery, whether you take on the role of emotional or social support.

Individuals suffering from alcoholism or addiction will face a point in their lives where they want to either stop drinking and using substances, or they see only indifference and ambivalence. Those that do have a desire to stop drinking or using a drug will seek help for their disease through various support systems. These support systems include but are not limited to:

• • In-patient and out-patient treatment centers
  • Rehabilitation facilities
  • Sober home living
  • Twelve-step programs

These support systems offer various treatment methods for the person suffering from alcoholism or substance addiction, such as with in-patient and out-patient treatment centers. They operate formally in that they provide their patients with a structured recovery program in addition to regularly checking-up with a patient to see if they are following guidelines. Comparatively, every sober home living situation is different. One may have a strict set of rules, and another may not. Whereas an in-patient or out-patient facility traditionally will not employ the twelve-step methods, a sober home living situation might.

That being said, an important step your loved one will take in their recovery of alcoholism or substance abuse will be coming to terms with their addiction. If they have not already, know that they will need to admit and recognize they are suffering from an illness.

Ways That You Can Support a Recovering Alcoholic or Addict

How you are able to support your loved one in their recovery from alcoholism or substance addiction starts with educating yourself about their disease. If you are reading this, you are on the right track! Educating yourself on their disease includes knowing its warning signs and symptoms, including behavioral and physical aspects, as well as what you can do to create a better environment for your loved one’s recovery.

To better educate yourself on alcohol and drug addiction, use government and non-profit organization resources to get the least biased perspective. Some of these resources include:

• • The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP)
  • SAMHSA
  • Narcotics Anonymous (NA)
  • Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
  • Al-Anon (for family and friends of addicts)

 A healthy, positive environment is needed for a suffering addict to make a full recovery. This would include setting realistic goals and expectations for them to meet based on whether they are getting treatment in terms of full-abstinence or semi-abstinence from alcohol or a substance. If the former, ask yourself a couple of questions:

• • What are the day-to-day expectations?
  • How will they fill their time now that they are not drinking alcohol or using a substance?

 It is integral that they build new healthy habits. For example, creating a to-do list for the day and following through brings back consistency to their life. Also, finding a constructive hobby that they enjoy will allow them to mitigate mental health issues that persist alongside recovery.

In our own experience, Real Recovery has found that the road to recovery is most successful when the person in rehabilitation is employed or receiving an education as both provide a way for sober reintegration into society.

Why a Recovering Alcoholic or Addict Needs a Support Network

It is incredibly difficult for a recovering alcoholic or addict to go at it alone. A support network fills that gap. It provides the person with reliable support from friends, family, and people also going through their recovery process.

Friends and family play a great role in reminding their loved one who is recovering from alcoholism or substance addiction, that they will continue accepting them for who they are and who they had been. It is important to remind oneself if you are supporting a loved one in their recovery that, if they relapse, understand why and offer help if asked.

In addition to family and friends being there for an addict, interacting with others also on their way to recovery showcases that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. With talking to other addicts and sharing stories, a person seeking recovery is better able to understand their own past experiences and what brought them to drinking alcohol or using a substance to the degree that they did.

Early-on and throughout their continued recovery, they will meet and learn more about other addicts in twelve-step programs. Depending on whether the twelve-step meeting that they attend is open or closed (meaning open to addicts and non-addicts versus closed to non-addicts), then you should try to join them in a meeting. Learning more about the twelve-step program and encouraging consistent attendance of it to your loved one emboldens their recovery with structured support from other recovering addicts as well as yourself. If you wish not to enable them, as well, learning firsthand about their recovery process is key.

How to Spot the Early Warning Signs of Relapse and How to Help Avoid It

Being able to spot the early warning signs of relapse will greatly affect the outcome of how your loved one manages it. Setting the precedent that honesty will not be met with anger or disappointment helps learn firsthand if they relapsed, that is that a line of communication is open. If this approach is not feasible, you will need to look out for the triggers of relapse. As discussed by NIDA, these relapse triggers include but are not limited to:

• • Cravings and withdrawal
  • Stressful life events
  • Encountering cues or reminders of alcohol or drug abuse
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Isolation
  • Losing interest in their recovery
  • Neglecting responsibilities

 A person suffering from alcoholism or substance addiction may encounter one or multiple of these relapse triggers throughout their recovery. Every person in recovery reacts differently to the possibility of relapse. To reiterate, prolonged relapse is greatly reduced when the person relapsing has been integrated into a supportive community. Mental health effects of addiction, like depression, anxiety, or isolation, are able to be combated when an addict is immersed in an environment focused on recovery, including their psychological, physical, and social health.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), persons struggling with drug use disorder within the year prior to when this survey was taken were 1.3 times more likely to develop depression, 1.6 times more likely to develop PTSD, 1.8 times more likely to develop BPD, and 3 times more likely to develop alcohol use disorder and nicotine use disorder.

If these mental health illnesses progress during alcohol or substance use, it makes it only more difficult for the individual to seek help. That is why surrounding oneself with a community that is able to recognize how these issues coincide with alcohol and addiction, and therefore, are able to provide help, is imperative to your loved one’s recovery.

Alcoholism and drug addiction are detrimental to your mental and physical health. If you or a loved one are in need of treatment for alcoholism or substance use disorder, please seek help as soon as possible.

Prior to treatment at Real Recovery Sober Living, we ask that you complete a medically supervised detox, as alcohol withdrawals and withdrawals of most drugs are dangerous and can be life-threatening. In-patient treatment is recommended for those at risk of relapse. At Real Recovery, we welcome those who are serious about their recovery, and we are happy to help you transition from your treatment or rehab facility to our sober living homes.

As Florida’s largest provider of sober living beds and highest rated sober living home, Real Recovery offers a safe and stable environment with a strong community support system to help men successfully transition back into the REAL world. To learn more about how to achieve long-term sobriety, speak with one of our recovery specialists by calling (727) 290-9156.