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4 Ways to Support a Loved One in Outpatient Treatment for Addiction

Whether your loved one recently finished inpatient addiction treatment or decided that it’s time to get help, you’re proud of their progress. Your loved one’s addiction has been hard on them and your family. But seeing them make progress towards recovery is starting to give you a sense of hope.

The next step in your loved one’s journey is outpatient addiction treatment. This is a time when they’ll learn essential skills and make the necessary lifestyle changes to help them manage daily life in recovery. And the situation gets you asking yourself an important question: How I can support my loved one in outpatient addiction treatment?

Your loved one will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but that doesn’t mean you can’t support them. In this post, we’ll outline some of the ways you can help your loved one through this important part of their recovery.

4 Ways to Support a Loved One in Outpatient Treatment

1. Build A Healthy Environment

Outpatient addiction treatment gives your loved one the opportunity to participate in treatment while handling responsibilities of home, work and school. Unlike residential treatment, they will be spending more time at home – giving you the perfect chance to give them a helping hand.

For many struggling with addiction, their environment often plays a role in their substance abuse. One of the best things you can do is help your loved one turn their home into a place that promotes recovery. Start by removing any temptations like alcohol, drugs or even expired prescriptions. Then, you can get to cleaning. Having an organized space can help fuel the structured and routine-based approach many outpatient programs follow.

There are also ways you can help make their environment feel less isolating. Try to introduce natural light into the home and make sure contact information of all their loved ones is in plain sight for when they need company or support. Anything you can do to help with relapse prevention is a plus.

2. Encourage Healthy Habits, but Don’t Hover

When your love one is going through outpatient addiction treatment, it’s natural to want to give them advice. But family involvement in recovery needs to be balanced. While you might not be an expert in addiction, you can help your loved one create and maintain healthy habits.

Some examples include:

  • Reminding them to get a good night’s sleep
  • Promoting a healthier diet with trips to the grocery store and home-cooked meals
  • Volunteering to exercise with them every day
  • Helping them develop and stick to a healthy schedule and routine

You’ll most likely want to keep an eye on your loved one while they are in outpatient treatment. But building back their sense of independence and responsibility is crucial to their recovery. Once their treatment starts, try to sit down with them and establish some boundaries. You want to make sure that you’re not adding stress or resentment by hovering over them.

3. Practice Active Listening Without Judgement

The thoughts and feelings your loved one experiences in outpatient treatment oftentimes follow them home after their therapy sessions. That’s where your support can come into play. Let your loved one know that if they have any victories or struggles to share, you’re there to listen. You want your loved one to have a comfortable and safe place to share their feelings outside of treatment.

But active listening is only half the battle. Reserving judgement is one of the hardest parts of family involvement in addiction treatment. It’s common for people in recovery to feel like they’re being judged by their family. Carrying that guilt can actually make it more difficult for them to make progress.

If you ever feel the urge to criticize, take a moment to stop and remember that it’s not the time or place. Your loved one’s recovery will benefit more from love and positive reinforcement.

4. Take Care of Yourself

At first glance, this might sound a bit counterintuitive. Your loved one is in outpatient addiction treatment; shouldn’t the focus be on them? The truth is, addiction affects more than the person who abused the substance. It has an impact on their family, as well.

If you have unresolved feelings about your loved one’s addiction, it’s okay for you to seek help. After all, there’s a reason why many addiction recovery centers offer family therapy. Once you work past any issues your loved one’s addiction has caused, you’ll be in a better position to support them. Having a loved one in recovery can be stressful. And by taking steps to keep yourself healthy, your loved one will take notice and feel more motivated in their own recovery journey.

Find Expert Outpatient Addiction Treatment in Treasure Island, FL

Footprints Beachside Recovery Center is a family run addiction treatment center that can help your loved one restore their life after addiction. With the relaxing beach town of Treasure Island, FL as a backdrop, we give your loved one a private setting to heal their mind, spirit and body.

Our outpatient addiction treatment can help your loved one build accountability. With a focus on relapse prevention, our goal is to increase the chance of your loved one achieving lasting recovery from substance abuse. Contact our team today to learn if your loved one is a good fit for our intensive outpatient treatment program.