Once your loved one enters a rehab center, it can feel like you’ve suddenly lost touch with them and their life. They’re shut away in a recovery program, hopefully getting the help you need, but you’re not there with them, instead limited to getting occasional updates from doctors and staff at the facility, perhaps even a message or two from you loved one. But it can still feel isolating as you wonder, what is the addict’s progress in the program? How are they truly doing?
It is vital that you stay on top of this information, because your loved one is likely not in a condition to honestly evaluate their own progress. And while the doctors at the facility certainly know more about treatment than you likely you, only you and your network of family and friends have the intimate connection with your loved one to keep fighting for them no matter what.
Keeping track of your loved one and their progress in beating their addiction is an invaluable part of the process in helping them reach true recovery.
Once the addict has crossed the threshold of a substance abuse treatment center, it does not mean that they are ready to return to “normal life.” This is just the beginning of their recovery journey. Remind yourself that they are exactly where they need to be and getting the help that their addiction requires. Stay true to the recommended care plan, and you will see the life-changing transformation soon.
It is important to keep in touch with your loved one personally, to hear directly from them and encourage them in their continued journey to recovery, but you must be careful in how you respond to their entreaties.
Be careful not to be manipulated by the addict. Remain hopeful and optimistic, but also wise and anticipate manipulation. The addict may provide reasons that they need to be discharged, accusations about staff, and that they are in the wrong place. While you shouldn’t discount everything they say, you must look through every word and parse it for what is true and what is self-serving deception in their desperation to get out and return to their addiction.
While your loved one needs to be encouraged, they are still far from being well. Understand that the drugs have rewired their brain and how they negotiate life, and this does not get fully healed in a 30-day treatment program. They may need months, sometimes even years, to be in a place of sustained sobriety.
Remember, you are not alone. Not only should you have the help of everyone in your network of friends and family who helped get your loved one the help they need in a recovery program, you also have the help of the program itself. The doctors are there to help your loved one and they will keep you informed of their progress. Now, the doctors aren’t necessarily on your side, if there are such things as sides here. Everything they suggest may not be what you’d want, but your instincts to spare your loved one pain can easily become enabling patterns that simply help them avoid necessary but hard measures.
The doctors are, at least, on the opposite side of the addiction, and everything they do is in the best interests of defeating the addiction and giving your loved one a better life in the long term.
At Good Landing Recovery, doctors will keep you informed about your loved one and their progress in defeating their addiction. If you have an addict in your life who needs help, give Good Landing a call today.
