6 Ways of Helping Others in Addiction Recovery
If you’re in recovery, you may have heard time and time again that it’s so important to give back to others who are struggling. You may be wondering why helping others is so important. After all, shouldn’t you be focused on your own healing and growth?
The truth is, helping others while you’re in recovery is part of your healing and growth. There are so many benefits to helping others along their own recovery journey. These benefits extend not only to those you’re helping, but ripple into your life, too.
Read on to discover how helping others in addiction recovery is also beneficial for you. Learn about the benefits of recovery communities, and discover 6 ways you can help others in addiction recovery.
Service as the foundation of AA
The globally recognised peer support group Alcoholics Anonymous was founded on the tenets of helping other people experience recovery. The simple act of one human being in recovery helping another human being in recovery created the foundation of a group that has gone on to help thousands of people experience recovery with the support of others.
In 1935, a man named Bill W. found himself struggling in his own recovery. Although he had been sober for several months, he found himself facing an inner battle to engage in use again.
This is when he had the idea that helping someone else get through their own recovery would help him remain sober, too. He soon went on to meet Dr. Bob, and after living in the power of service themselves, the two went on to found AA.
How helping others in addiction recovery helps you
Research has shown that when you're helping others, they aren't the only one who benefit. You too can greatly benefit from being in service to others. Below are several ways in which helping others can also help you, too.
Improved mental health
Many studies have demonstrated that helping others can have a positive impact on the mental health of the helper. Some of the mental health benefits of helping others are improved mood and a decrease in symptoms of anxiety and depression. Studies have shown that the benefits of helping others double when you’re helping someone who’s struggling with the same chronic disease as you.
Increased self-esteem
Helping others has the ability to help improve your self-esteem. When you struggle with addiction, there’s no question that your self-esteem takes a hit. You may feel that others are judging you, and maybe you’re even judging yourself. You may have made choices you weren’t proud of whilst in active addiction, making it difficult for you to feel good about yourself. Although you are not defined by the choices of your past, many in recovery struggle with feelings of shame and guilt.
However, when you help someone else, it can help you feel good about yourself. It can remind you about who you truly are, at your core. It can help you feel proud of yourself, which is truly indispensable in recovery. When you feel good about yourself and pride around your actions, this allows you to innately build a sense of self-esteem that you may have never had before.
Sense of purpose
Helping others in addiction recovery can also give you a greater sense of purpose. It isn't uncommon to struggle with emptiness or numbness in recovery. You may be struggling to gain solid footing. Perhaps you don't know what you want out of life, or you're struggling with having belief in yourself.
When you help others in addiction recovery, you feel like there is value in what you went through. Your innate knowledge and experience are able to help other people who feel alone in their struggles. You can help other people know that what they're going through is a normal part of recovery. You can help them not feel so bad about themselves.
The things you've learned about yourself, even the things that feel insignificant, have the power to impact other people's lives in a meaningful way. When you help others in addiction recovery by sharing what you've gone through, it can help you feel a deep sense of fulfilment.
A reminder of where you came from
Helping others in addiction recovery is a powerful reminder of where you came from. An interesting thing that happens when you start to experience new levels of healing and growth is that it doesn't take long for the new state to feel normal. When this state becomes normalised, it's very easy to forget that at one point in time, you may have never thought you'd be here. You may have never thought that achieving this state was possible.
Even if you're in the very early stages of recovery, you may have never envisioned yourself ever even going to treatment. You may have never thought it was possible for you to end your use. When you help others in recovery, or those who are still in active addiction, it can be a jarring reminder of where you used to be. This can help you build confidence in how far you come. It can help you evoke a sense of gratitude for what your life looks like now.
Preventing relapse
Additionally, helping others in addiction recovery can decrease your chances of relapsing. When you’re in recovery, it can be easy to forget just how painful your life was while you were in active addiction. You may even begin to romanticise what it was like to engage in use. When you're helping others in recovery or in active addiction, the truth of addiction and how painful it is becomes much more difficult to forget. This serves as a helpful reminder if the thought to use ever trickles into your mind.
The benefits of a recovery community in helping others
Whilst helping others is a fundamental part of the AA recovery programme, its benefits extend to those who are part of any recovery community. You don’t need to be a part of AA to be of service to others in recovery.
However, being a part of any type of recovery community will give you more opportunities to provide support to others who are struggling with addiction.
When you’re in a recovery community, such as a support group, you constantly have opportunities to offer feedback and insight. You can provide people with a listening ear, with your compassion, and with your genuine faith in them that they can get better. These may seem small, but these qualities are so meaningful and powerful for someone who is feeling alone and struggling to find hope.
As part of a recovery community, you also have the added benefit of learning from other people who have gone through some of the things you may be currently facing.
Additionally, a recovery community doesn’t necessarily have to be in-person. You can find a recovery community online, whether that’s through virtual meetings or online forums.
6 ways for helping others in addiction recovery
You may now have an idea of how helping others in addiction recovery can also help you, too. However, you may be wondering exactly how you can actually help others in recovery. Fortunately, there are so many different ways to use your experiences to help those who are where you used to be.
Below are 6 ways for helping others in addiction recovery:
1. Create a blog
If you are creative or enjoy writing, you can create a blog to help others in recovery from addiction. You can share your own experiences, knowledge, and insight to educate and inspire people. Creating a blog can also allow you to help a targeted group of people, based on your own experiences.
For instance, if you specifically want to help mothers in addiction recovery or veterans in addiction recovery, you can create a blog centred on these specific experiences. If you would prefer to not interact with people in person, or if you would like to help others but remain anonymous, a blog could be a great option for you.
2. Offer service in a support group
Another great way to help those in recovery is by offering help in a support group setting. As previously mentioned, one example of this is AA, but there are many support groups and 12-step programmes that you can explore.
You can offer service in a support group such as SMART Recovery simply by sharing your insight with others. You can offer feedback to other people, and help people feel less isolated in their experience. Support groups that are based on the 12-step paradigm often use the model of sponsors. You can become a sponsor and provide support, guidance, insight, and hope to your sponsee.
3. Volunteer
Volunteering with people who are struggling with addiction is another way to give back. You can research volunteer opportunities in your area by doing a quick online search. Some treatment centres may allow you to volunteer, but you can also explore non-profits and charities as well that are focused on substance use. Some hospitals also offer volunteer opportunities based on the area of addiction recovery. Additionally, some support groups, such as SMART Recovery, welcome the assistance of volunteers.
4. Provide speaking engagements
If you want to share your message with others and enjoy speaking, you can offer to do speaking engagements centred around addiction and recovery. You can do speaking engagements in many places including schools, universities, prisons, with sports teams, and even in corporate offices. Addiction doesn’t discriminate, so get creative and get your message out there to the audience you feel needs to hear it.
5. Join an online forum based on addiction
A great way to help others from the comfort of your own home is by joining an online, addiction-based forum. Recoverlution offers a space for you to provide support, wisdom, and guidance to those in all stages of recovery. You can join the free Recoverlution Community and create a circle that allows you to host meetings and help others in recovery.
6. Just be there for others
Being there for other people, even with your presence alone, can seem so simple but can be incredibly powerful. So many people struggle with difficult emotions and tough experiences, and feel alone in what they’re going through. When you offer someone your phone number or email address, or simply sit with someone in their time of need, it can be so meaningful for them. When other people are treated with kindness and compassion, especially in a time of need, it helps give them hope.
Be mindful of your own motivations while helping others
Helping others can add so much value and fulfilment to your life. However, it isn’t meant to distract you from your life. Many people who struggled with addiction also struggled with facing and managing difficult emotions and experiences. This lack of emotional regulation doesn’t go away once the substance use ends – it’s something that must be worked on. If you’re in recovery and helping others, be sure to be mindful of whether you’re doing so in an effort to ignore the issues you’re currently facing.
It can be easy to forget about your own problems and fully focus on the problems of others, especially when helping them adds so much value to your life. However, when you don’t face your own problems, this can build up within you, and the resulting emotional consequences can lead to relapse. Therefore, simply check in with yourself often. Don’t forget to take care of your own mental and emotional well-being, too.
Author - Thurga
Resources
- Who Should I Help to Stay Sober? - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727692/
- Altruism. (2022, September 14). In Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism