17th June 2020

Post-Treatment Support: 3 Reasons it's Crucial

When you leave a treatment facility, you will almost certainly feel triumphant. You’ve conquered detox and withdrawals. You’ve faced down some demons and persevered. You’re ready for a wonderful new challenge, ready to find fulfillment in all the areas of your personal and professional life that you’ve neglected for too long. But it is a huge mistake to assume that you can conquer addiction in isolation. Almost everyone who succeeds in recovery needs support as they navigate life after addiction, and here’s why:

1) Life's Stressors

Post-Treatment Support: 3 Reasons it's Crucial

Your parents and teachers probably told you this long ago, and they told you for a reason. Addiction simplifies all of life’s problems, allowing the addict to substitute the worries and cares that most people deal with into one problem: how do I get more of the substance I need to function? After addiction, you are exchanging that one simple problem for a host of other concerns.

And life can be especially hard when you’re facing challenges that you have avoided for years. Most addicts emerge from treatment to find that their finances are a mess, their health has deteriorated, their professional prospects have changed for the worse, and their personal relationships are in dire need of attention and repair. It is easy to feel overwhelmed, and your mind has been conditioned to turn to a substance when faced with difficult situations and emotions. 

This is why a sponsor, a peer-support group, or a counselor is fundamental to the recovery process. You’ll need encouragement and advice to get your finances in order, to make amends with the people you’ve wronged, to re-connect and repair relationships with loved ones, and to build healthy habits for your sober life. Someone experienced in the logistics of rebuilding lives destroyed by addiction can guide you through a process which will appear hopeless and impossibly daunting at first. You’ll need to learn how to live a responsible and productive life, and it’s almost impossible to learn without a teacher.

2) All It Takes is One Slip

All It Takes is One Slip

We tend to think differently of relapse when dealing with addiction than we do with “medical” diseases. But as with cancer in remission, the specter of relapse will always be looming behind you. Addicts suffer relapses at rates similar to those for “chronic medical illnesses” according to the National Institute for Health. While relapse doesn’t necessarily mean that treatment has failed, many addicts immediately return to their previous, self-destructive patterns of substance use and behaviour.

But relapse doesn’t happen in a single, disastrous moment. Addictions experts have broken relapse down into a series of stages. It begins with “emotional relapse”, where denial, isolating, bottling-up of emotions, and poor self-care put those in recovery in vulnerable positions. This is followed by “mental relapse”, which typically includes minimizing the damage caused by substance misuse, glamourizing past substance use, lying, bargaining with yourself, and creating scenarios where substance use would be acceptable. The final stage is “physical relapse”, where an addict begins using once again.

Because professionals and peers with experience of addiction are aware of this cycle and have dealt with these situations before, they are an absolutely invaluable resource for preventing relapse. A sponsor, counselor, or close friend who has been through these battles will recognize the signs of relapse in the stages leading to a physical relapse, and prod you back onto a healthy path. Having someone you trust and respect point out negative patterns in thought or behaviour can often be enough to keep you on the road to recovery. An NCBI review found that participation in peer-support programs led to higher rates of abstinence, greater satisfaction with treatment, and significant reductions in relapse rate.   

3) People Need People

Over 2000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote that “Man is, by nature, a social animal.” He argued that humans derive happiness and meaning from building connections with others, and that anyone who didn’t need others was “either a beast or a God”, something more or less than truly human. Modern philosophers have explored and challenged his ideas, but we think most would agree with his assertion that we need to interact with and care deeply about others in order to live meaningful lives.

Johann Hari, a journalist and thinker who has explored addiction in-depth, would certainly agree with the Greek. After studying the affliction, he concluded that addiction was based not on brain chemistry, but on an inability to connect with others. The Canadian psychologist Dr. Bruce Alexander conducted the seminal “Rat Park” study, an experiment which influenced Hari’s thinking. He offered morphine-laced water to rats that were isolated, and to others placed in environments with companions, toys, exercise equipment, and sexual partners. Alexander found that the isolated rats quickly became dependent on opiates, while the happy, socially fulfilled rats did not.

Why is this important for you? Post treatment, you’ll be particularly vulnerable to feelings of isolation. You’ll want to avoid many of your former friends and associates in order to stay sober, and it will take time to re-build meaningful connections with family and loved ones. Peer-support groups are a tremendous way to manufacture a sense of connection and belonging as you begin to build a sober life. Most groups are supportive and welcoming, and the encouragement, advice, and guidance they can offer will be invaluable.

At Iboga Tree Healing House, we recommend peer-support fellowships to anyone who’ll listen. Even if you’re put off by the 12 Step model, there are promising alternatives out there, such as Smart Recovery, which might work for you. We’ve even launched our own peer-support network tailored for those who’ve found sobriety through iboga therapy, which allows individuals around the world to come together for weekly video conferences. Recovery isn’t easy, and it’s even harder if you try to do it alone!