Treatment programs and support groups offer recovery meetings to help in the recovery process. How do they help?
When we are in recovery, we often isolate ourselves, out of shame, out of fear of burdening those around us, out of the sheer anxiety of being around other people. Living our stories is hard enough. Having to share them can feel impossible! Recovery meetings provide a safe space where people struggling with similar addictions can share their stories, their experiences, their lessons. They can provide each other with the empathy and understanding that can be hard to find elsewhere. This can bring us a sense of hope where we might not otherwise have been able to find any.
Meetings can give people the structure they need to help them stay on track with their recovery goals. Members can share their progress, give updates and swap healing tools that work for them. They can share the emotional struggles that are making recovery harder, and members can offer their support and encouragement and share the things that have helped them. In this way, other people and their experiences become invaluable resources for us. They can offer us the support and solace we need when we feel lost, when we feel like giving up.
Going to meetings can be one of the things that helps ground people in their recovery. They might not know how they’re going to make it through the day or the week, but they know that if they can get to a meeting, they’ll be ok. They know that if they can keep showing up, they greatly increase their chance for a successful recovery. Meetings, and the people we meet with, can give us a sense of accountability that can help us to stay on track. We want to be able to tell our group that we’re still clean. And if we’ve relapsed, we know they are there to support us without judgment.
For people who haven’t struggled with addiction, the recovery process can be a mystery. They might want to help their loved one in recovery but simply don’t know how. In meeting groups, we’re all in different stages of the recovery process, so we have a deeper understanding and familiarity with the issues that come with addiction. Going to meetings and observing can actually help addicts’ loved ones understand and learn more about addiction and recovery. There are also groups specifically for them, to support them with the very real challenges of living with addicts. In many ways, groups can be extremely beneficial to both us as addicts and to those who love us and want to support us.
At Riverside, we offer daily recovery meetings, among many other recovery tools. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information.