As you progress with your treatment, you may have anxiety associated with returning home. When in treatment, you gathered all the tools needed to secure a stable connection between peers and treatment professionals. You developed healthy coping skills and may even recognize the root of your disease. You may have never thought you would make it this far, let alone think about returning home.
Thoughts of people, places, and things associated with substance abuse can trigger unwanted thoughts and feelings. You think of all the progress and growth within treatment and the beneficial concepts you have learned. The knowledge you gain in treatment can be empowering, and you most likely want this feeling to last. Luckily, you can explore safety within your home environment through a few tips.
Is Your Home Safe?
Returning home from treatment can be an empowering journey and create a sense of awareness and a positive outlook on your life. Perhaps a bit of excitement fills your soul while thinking about returning home. However, when planning to return home, you want to plan to provide a safe space for you to continue your recovery.
While we cannot plan for everything, we do have the power to identify people, places, and things within our home environment that may or may not be beneficial for recovery. You may want to consider your home environment and determine if it is recovery friendly. Creating stability within the home environment can provide an overall increased sense of well-being and safety.
If your home is not safe, there are resources, such as sober living homes, available for your environmental needs. Before leaving treatment, you must create a safe home environment to ensure a positive and smooth transition.
Enabling vs. Empowering
You have most likely heard the word “enabling” time and time again. An enabler justifies negative behavior and provides excuses without taking responsibility. Most people who are enablers do not intentionally mean to cause harm but intend to help you.
Enabling addiction can be detrimental to a person who is in treatment. When presented with the opportunity to go home, you are faced with several choices to address the enabler. Though this conversation may be complicated, you will feel empowered in your recovery.
Empowering is just as it sounds. The root word is power, which means the ability to act in a particular way. You encountered a space of empowerment within the treatment. You changed your thought processes and learned healthy coping skills for daily life. You can conquer anything that life hands you. When empowerment is present, you can handle life on life’s terms and can plan for unintentional circumstances that may arise.
Finding a space of empowerment leads to amazing opportunities within recovery. Feeling confident that those at home can empower you can allot a space of accountability within your recovery.
Does Your Family Support Your Recovery?
This can be a harsh truth to process. Most family members say they are supportive of recovery. However, their actions may not always show it.
Depending on your family dynamics, you may suggest family therapy. Addiction is a family disease, and family therapy can help heal family dynamics. It is essential to have a positive, supportive family dynamic within recovery, especially when returning home from treatment. If you question whether or not your recovery will be supported, this is a conversation to have with family members before you return home.
Addiction affects everyone within your family as a whole. This is the primary reason for support meetings, such as Al-Anon, to provide support through connectivity. You can suggest support meetings before returning home to ensure a positive and supportive recovery environment.
Benefits of Family Therapy
Addiction does not just affect you; it affects your entire family. The disease of addiction is considered a family disease due to environmental factors that tend to trickle among family members. You have come this far in your recovery, and family therapy may be a beneficial tool for stability when returning home.
Family therapy provides a safe space for you to engage in open communication with family members to discuss areas within your recovery where you may lack family support. It also offers effective routine strategies for the family unit to abide by and allot a space for family members to discuss setting boundaries within the household upon your arrival. Family therapy can also provide an unbiased point of view to discuss anything you want to talk to your family members about within a safe space.
Finding Continuing Support
When returning home after treatment, finding continuing support can be crucial to your ongoing recovery. Support groups and continued therapy can help hold you accountable. Continuing support can also help you get through the challenging days of recovery.
At The Guest House, we provide alumni groups for those who have been through treatment with us to find support from like-minded peers. We want to help you succeed in your recovery.
Returning home after treatment can be both overwhelming and exciting. Completing treatment is empowering and life-changing to those who came before you and those who will come after you. Throughout this process, you learned healthy coping skills to ensure a safe recovery environment. Creating awareness within your home environment will build supportive relationships and trust within your family. You can feel empowered by your recovery and build healthy coping skills that will last a lifetime. At The Guest House, we help prepare those who go through treatment with us to return to a safe home environment. Finding continuing care through support groups and resources for family healing can ensure you achieve lasting sobriety after treatment is complete. We want you to succeed and are here to help you through every step of the recovery process. Call us today at (855) 483-7800 to learn more about how we can help you.