What You Should Look for In Recovery Friends

Forming the right friendships is an important step in your recovery. Your new sober life should be fulfilling, and sober friends can help make that so by providing support, connection, and fun. 

Having sober friends is also an integral part of your emotional health and reintegration into society. Making friends will teach you to relate to others without the crutch of alcohol or drugs. 

On the flip side, hanging out with the wrong peers can threaten your hard-won sobriety. Especially during early recovery, you might need a little help deciphering healthy from unhealthy relationships. 

Positive Friend Qualities
Any new friend should be supportive of your sobriety and share similar goals and values. This will help ensure that you stick to healthy habits and stay motivated to reach your recovery goals and follow your sober dreams. Other positive qualities to look for in a new sober friend include:

• Honesty and trustworthiness
• Kindness
• Compassion
• Self-awareness
• Dependability
• Non-judgmental
• Good listening skills
• Strong understanding of personal boundaries
• Healthy sense of humor
• Supportive and encouraging
• Able to express emotions and feelings in an honest and direct way

Friendship Red flags

In addition to looking for positive qualities and personality traits, it’s also helpful to ask yourself the following questions while getting to know a new friend: 

• Is this person reliable or dependable?
• Do I feel better or worse when I’m with this person?
• Does this person make me feel insecure?
• Do I feel controlled or manipulated in any way?
• Is this person jealous or possessive?
• Do I have any concerns about this relationship?

Relapse Prevention at Complete Harmony
From identifying high-risk relationships to learning mindfulness techniques that center you, our relapse prevention and aftercare planning will empower you and slowly eliminate the dangerous urge to self-medicate. To learn more, call today: 866-930-4673.

Healthy Activities for Fall

Fall is filled with an abundance of healthy activities that suit the season and your recovery goals. Here are a few ways to take advantage of the many ways autumn can strengthen your body and mind as you work hard this season to get (and stay) sober.  

• Rake some leaves. This fall chore happens to be a great workout. For added fun and calorie burn: Jump in the piles a few times or recruit some friends and have relays around bagging the leaves. 
• Cook up some healthy fall treats. Roast some fall veggies like Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes or whip up a light butternut squash soup. For a healthful dessert, pop some apples in the oven and sprinkle with some cinnamon. 
• Go for a long hike. Time spent with Mother Nature has been study-proven to calm activity in a part of the brain linked to mental illness and reduce your mind’s propensity to “ruminate” — or focus on negative, self-focused patterns linked with anxiety and depression.
• Play a pick-up game. The benefits of playing flag football or soccer with a group of friends or recovery peers are double-duty: You’ll get in a good workout and socialize. 
• Make time to volunteer. There’s nothing like cooler temperatures to remind you about the importance of helping others who lack hot food and a warm place to sleep. Volunteer at a nearby shelter or participate in a coat drive -- any good deed to give back and remind you to be grateful for what you have. 

Tis the Season for Recovery
If you or a loved one is searching for an addiction treatment program that blends conventional and alternative strategies for healing, our team can help. Nurturing mind, body, and spirit, we provide a continuum of treatment for residents and outpatients. Call Complete Harmony today: 866-930-4673.

The Stages of Change

Successful addiction recovery requires change – a change in your mindset, behaviors, actions, feelings, goals, relationship with yourself and others – and you’ll experience these changes in different stages. 

Most successful self-changers go through the stages three or four times before they make it through the cycle of change without at least one slip, according to the experts at SMART Recovery®, who describes the stages of change as follows: 

• Precontemplation Stage: People in the pre-contemplation stage of change usually show up in therapy because of pressures from family, friends, employers, or courts.  They tend change the topic of conversation when others address their problem and place blame and responsibility on factors like genetics, family, society, destiny, the police, etc. 
• Contemplation Stage: Contemplators may feel like “I want to stop feeling so stuck!” In other words, they have come to acknowledge that they have a problem but struggle to understand its causes and wonder about possible solutions. People in this stage may be researching addiction and treatment.
• Preparation Stage: Most people in the preparation stage are planning to take action and are likely making final adjustments before they take action to change their behavior. Still, individuals in this stage may need a little convincing. 
• Action Stage: This stage requires the greatest commitment of time and energy. During this stage, people overtly modify their behavior and their surroundings and change becomes more visible to others.
• Maintenance Stage: This stage helps to prevent relapse or return to the precontemplation or contemplation stage. After all, change never ends with action, notes the experts at SMART Recovery®.

Begin SMART Recovery® at Complete Harmony

SMART Recovery® is ideal for men and women seeking an alternative to the 12-step approach to addiction treatment. At Complete Harmony, our team will help you determine whether this type of addiction recovery program is right for you. To learn more, call today: 866-930-4673.