Whether one is just starting or continuing their addiction recovery journey, it is important to be surrounded by a community of supportive and positive people. This helps individuals in addiction recovery to continue and prosper beyond their addiction. A healthy social life is a significant factor in recovery. One’s social life can have both positive and negative effects on one’s journey. Similarly, the more one progresses in their recovery journey, the more their social life can bloom.
Social Health and Addiction Recovery
Substance use disorder (SUD) can bring about many different struggles for individuals. This disorder can affect one’s behaviors, including those toward other people.
Symptoms of Substance Use Disorder
There are many symptoms of addiction, including:
- Irritability and paranoia
- Mood swings
- Fatigue and/or difficulty waking up
- Hallucinations
- Decreased motivation or involvement in activities or hobbies
- Inability to focus
- Bloodshot eyes
- Seizures
- Isolation
Addiction in Familial Social Relationships
It is important to reach out and seek help when experiencing alcohol or substance abuse. However, getting help is often difficult when individuals don’t feel supported or loved by those around them. Likewise, SUD can drive a wedge in relationships with others. Consequently, the addiction creates tension that makes it difficult to foster a supportive and caring social life.
Specifically, in families, drug and alcohol abuse can lead to damaged relationships between spouses, parents, and children. One’s overall home life in general can be disturbed.
It is common for SUD to come between spouses. This may happen in the sense that one partner may blame the other for their substance abuse, such as why they drink too much. Substance abuse often leads to one’s partner feeling guilt, shame, hurt, fear, and the general sense of being a failure. These feelings tend to encourage the partner or spouse to take steps to attempt to ignore or hide their partner’s addiction. This causes tears in intimate relationships. It can chip at trust and the connection between the two, and eventually lead to a toxic or negative social environment.
As for parents and their children, SUD can lead to neglect, an unorganized daily schedule, child discomfort in the home, child isolation, putting parenting responsibilities on older children, emotional and physical abuse, and an overall strain on the parent-child relationship.
With home life and addiction, general family concerns may naturally arise. Such instances can lead the individual with SUD to feel anger and guilt, or begin to isolate themselves to avoid confrontation or unwanted feelings. Resentment may also surface in the household.
Getting Help
Despite these negative results of drug and alcohol abuse, familial and intimate relationships can be the very ones that encourage recovery. In other words, these strained or broken relationships, particularly in one’s home life, have the chance to be resolved through the recovery journey.
Broken relationships are reasons to seek recovery and rebuild connections. Treatment can make these relationships stronger and more positive. Embarking on a recovery journey is not only beneficial to the one seeking and receiving treatment, but also to those around them. Social relationships are rebuilt and strengthened. The community continues to encourage sobriety in a healthy and nonjudgmental way.
Social Life at Roots Recovery
At Roots Recovery, our team includes clinical members and professionals alongside the community of peers. The social atmosphere at Roots is meant to encourage progress on one’s recovery journey. It allows the client to experience support while they embark on their recovery journey and mend personal relationships along the way.
While support among peers is important to the recovery journey, it is also important to feel supported by one’s team members. This guidance can offer services and tools significant or necessary to the recovery journey. Building trust with others outside of one’s own personal life can open doors in recovery, fostering a more positive experience.
The whole-person approach at Root Recovery is specifically designed to heal the whole person while guiding their recovery journey. This experience provides each client the opportunity to heal their mind, body, and soul and develop deeper connections within themselves. Internal healing carves the path for healing external relationships.
Social Life After the Addiction Recovery Journey
Though one’s recovery journey is life-long, reaching a point of stability and sobriety can lead to more stable and positive relationships. While curating a healthy lifestyle, one’s social life thrives. More support, guidance, and encouragement from family members, friends, and other relationships foster and motivate the individual to continue their path of sobriety and healing.
Similarly, a support system and positive social life are significant in maintaining abstinence. Sustainable recovery is aided by a healthy and positive social life. Likewise, having support allows individuals with SUD to build trust with those in their personal life. They can talk to loved ones in times of need without feeling judged. Relationships are mended, trust is rebuilt, and healing can occur for all affected by addiction.
Here at Roots Recovery, we aim to encourage clients to heal themselves and their relationships with others to foster a healthy social life. Socializing is key to recovery and maintaining abstinence. Our team of professionals and supportive peers helps clients embarking on their recovery journeys to motivate sobriety and health. Focusing on healing the whole person, not just their SUD, allows clients to achieve sustainable healing and recovery. Once this is accomplished, fostering healthy relationships in their personal social lives is possible. We encourage families, friends, and loved ones to support individuals on their recovery journeys. In doing so, clients heal both themselves and those around them. To learn more about our services, call us at (562) 473-0827.
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