27 Jan The Power of Friendship in Recovery
One of the biggest strengths of addiction is its ability to thrive in solitude. Among the therapy and rehab exercises, another strength that allows one to overcome addiction is companionship. Here at our treatment center in Florida, friendships are encouraged as a necessity for one to be able to find the strength to move past addiction. Once we step out of our own world and share it with another, we can get a different perspective on how much of a parasite addiction really is. We have to experience life in order to seek it, and that life experience can reveal a strength we never knew we had before.
Friends are Everywhere
The ability to find a companion is present all throughout recovery, each from different backgrounds and skills. They can be counselors, fellow patients, coaches, or anyone else that can support you wholeheartedly throughout your journey. Often the strength of a true sober companion is the ability to keep you accountable. When one has someone else in the room, then the urge to relapse is challenged. Everyone responds to accountability differently. Certain people require different forms of companionship in order to keep them focused on staying sober.
Positive Relationships
The thing about true companionship is that it is tailored to what specifically makes you comfortable and fulfilled. Some friendships need to be avoided if they bring on negative feelings (and therefore may influence one’s recovery). In order to help determine what is a healthy or unhealthy relationship, our sober coaches and therapists can offer guidance and advice.
How our Staff Provides Help
As our therapists help you get to the core of your addiction, you will be able to understand your proper living needs that addiction tries to fulfill, but ultimately abuses. Our Staff helps point you in the right direction towards healthy relationships among other living needs, as well as offering himself or herself to a friend in need. There is a great deal of trust that our professional addiction counselors have with their patients, so in a way, they become an understanding sober companion for your recovery sessions.
Group Sessions
Another way that proper friendships can be determined is through group counseling sessions. These meetings feature various kinds of people and life experiences to learn from. Each found their way to and from addiction differently. However, what unites all of them together is the common goal of reaching healthy sobriety. Therefore, these groups allow you to meet potential friends with common goals. You can determine whom you are comfortable enough to speak to, and whom you might not be as compatible with. Of course, it is okay to be selective with your relationships; that is all a part of the recovery process where you determine what is healthy and what is not for your sober journey.
Common Goals, Mutual Benefits
The thing about having a friend with a common goal (sobriety) is that you both come from a different background. Whether you are from Florida or the other side of the world, you are now at our Treatment Center Florida residence, and you can both learn something from each other. Talking to other peers helps bring out new perspectives on addiction and recovery. There might be an aspect of working through the recovery process that you never realized until you’ve talked to these people. Perhaps there could be a new kind of strategy that they implement that you never thought possible. In response, you might enrich the other person’s life with hope for recovery as well. That’s the magical thing about positive relationships in recovery; not only does your recovery grow stronger, but so does the other person. In recovery, you not only regain life, but you also get more out of it than ever before.
If you are still curious about what to expect with our Treatment Center Florida services (PHP, IOP, and OP), then please be sure to contact Florida Recovery Group for more information. For specific information on life skill services, please be sure to check out our Case Management and Life Skills & Job Placement pages.
