Fellowship is a core value for many treatment centers and support groups. Our approach to recovery is based on the premise that we are stronger together, that we are meant to operate in community and partnership with one another, and that we have much to learn from our shared experience. Why is fellowship so important to our recovery?
Addiction can be a very isolating experience. For many of us, we have gone years of our lives consumed with our addiction, causing us to lose connection with other people and to disassociate from our lives as we once knew them. When we are struggling with the emotional pain of addiction, one of the major contributing factors is how alone we feel. We feel totally isolated with our pain. We think no one else will be able to understand our experience. We struggle with depression. Fellowship with other people can immediately break our cycles of self-isolation. Sharing with other people can bring us out of our shell. Being in community with other people can help us to be less withdrawn within ourselves. Talking to other people can help us get out of our heads and out of the thought patterns we’ve become stuck in.
Sharing our own experience with other people is an empowering process that shows us just how brave and strong we really are. We face tremendous fear opening ourselves up to other people in that way. We strengthen ourselves when we expose our vulnerability. We learn that we can in fact trust other people, and that their support is an invaluable resource in our recovery. We make friends and find kindred spirits that add so much light to our journey.
Learning from other people’s experiences offers us the additional wisdom that we get when we’re in positions that force us to grow and expand. Our potential is unlimited when we work with others, and all of our interpersonal growth as we’re doing the work of recovery adds to our progress and our success. Being in fellowship allows us to share in the breakthroughs, epiphanies, growth and development of our peers. Everything we learn for ourselves we have the opportunity to teach and share with others. What we absorb from other people are sources of wisdom and inspiration that we were meant to receive in this way, in fellowship with other people who support us and who can understand and empathize with our stories.
We believe that the support and fellowship of others is of vital importance to our recovery. The group sessions at Riverside Recovery allow our staff and clients to build the camaraderie and supportive environment that are so beneficial to a successful recovery. Call us today at (800) 871-5440.