Friendships in Recovery
So, you’ve been through addiction rehab or to some 12-step meetings and you have been told to get rid of people, places, and things that trigger you to use. But, you’re not sure how to end it with your using friends, nor do you want to.
At Cold Creek, I teach addicts how to handle friendships in recovery. I have watched their successes and failures along the way. Based on these experiences and on what I know of the research, it is clear that keeping using friends around is all but a guarantee of relapse.
Studies show that if you put an addict in an MRI and simply show him or her a picture of drug paraphernalia, the midbrain will light up on the screen. Not something you can help, if you are addicted to drugs, even in recovery, you have triggers that can lead you to use.
For this reason, it is imperative to avoid obvious triggers, while managing those you cannot avoid. Using friends can be told that while you care about them, you can’t be around them when they are using. If they are truly your friends, they will respect your desire to recover and will respect your boundary.
Some of the recovering addicts I have worked with have let all of their using friends go. Others have found that a few of them would hang out with them without even drinking, like going on hikes or visiting together away from a party or bar.
Others have come to our program after having gone through treatment before. For some of them, they identify the cause of their relapse as thinking they could hang around using friends. They found out the hard way that it just isn’t possible for the vast majority of recovering addicts. Why make the hardest battle of your life even harder? Letting go of using friends may be the best thing you ever do for yourself. Reach out and learn more by calling us at 1-877-593-6777.
