How People in Recovery Can Help Current Addicts

When you have successfully completed treatment for your addiction and are progressing in your recovery, you have a lot to offer others. You have experiences to share and, more importantly, an understanding of what others are going through as they struggle with their own addiction. People in recovery can help current addicts in a number of ways, which can be beneficial to everyone involved.

Why Help Others?

Helping others can make you feel better and can actually help in your own recovery efforts. There have been many research studies that have shown the effects of helping others when you are working through your own addiction to drugs or alcohol. In particular, Case Western University’s Maria Pagano has done quite a bit of research on social connections and their benefits for addicts.

Pagano and her team have concluded that you can increase your chances of staying sober by up to 50 percent when you have a supportive network, your sense of isolation is reduced, your social anxiety is decreased, and you reach out to help others. Having a network of people who support you can significantly impact your ability to stay sober. You can be part of that network in recovery as you help current addicts.

When you help others, it appears to decrease some of the psychological markers of addiction that made you prone to your addictive behaviors. You will probably find that helping others leads to better interpersonal interactions and will certainly prove beneficial to current addicts that you are able to assist through your words and actions.

Listen

Just being in someone else’s life to listen to them can be a tremendous help for current addicts. In recovery, you participate in support groups where other people who have experienced the challenges of addiction and the rewards of recovery are there to listen to you. As someone in recovery yourself, you can help current addicts by being empathetic, understanding their situation and relating to their struggles. While the addict may have friends or family members who want to support them, as an addict yourself you can offer the listening ear they truly need.

Conduct Well-Being Checks

Isolation is a serious issue in addiction. Now, especially, people are feeling even more isolated as the pandemic has limited face-to-face interactions. One of the most important ways people in recovery can help current addicts is to check on them frequently to ensure they are doing well, mentally and physically.

Make a phone call, suggest a video chat, or communicate via text or email regularly. Social isolation has been linked to negative mental and physical health consequences such as poor sleep quality, depression, cognitive decline, and even impaired immunity. The longer the isolation continues, the more serious its impact on an individual’s well-being. Reach out and let the individual know you care about them and want to be sure that they are taking care of themselves.

Participate in Online Support Groups

During “normal” times, one of the most effective ways to help current addicts is to help out at support group meetings. You might give a ride to someone who needs to attend, help set up the meeting itself, serve coffee, and stay behind to chat one-on-one. As most support group meetings have moved online, you can still participate actively, being there as a supportive, encouraging person in recovery.

Connect on a Spiritual Level

When you are active in your faith-based recovery, connecting with current addicts on a spiritual level can provide the support and encouragement they need to get through some very tough days. Two verses that define our mission at Celebrate Hope can be very helpful for others who are struggling with overcoming their addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Share with others that it is possible to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” as described in Romans 12:2. In recovery and in life, “the old life is gone; a new life has begun,” as we find in 2 Corinthians 5:17. This is an important message that can help current addicts, as well as yourself, as a reminder that addiction treatment and your faith give you a new life in recovery.

Help Them Find Help

Of course, the most important ways people in recovery can help current addicts is by guiding them toward the resources they need to get help for their mental and physical health. If you know someone who struggles with a substance use disorder, reach out and let them know they can get that help with Celebrate Hope’s faith-based addiction treatment program.

Encourage them to contact us to learn more about we help men and women break the cycle of addiction and begin anew. We rely on the teachings of Jesus Christ, along with evidence-based therapies to get individuals on the path of recovery.