If you’re a friend or a family member of someone in recovery from mental illness or substance misuse, a common question you may ask is, “What should I do to support my friend or loved one with their recovery?” You want to be helpful and supportive, but you may feel at a loss as to what specific things you can do to be of assistance.
There are many ways to be supportive if you care about someone in recovery. Here are a dozen different options to consider. Keep in mind each person’s recovery journey will be different, so some of these suggestions will likely be more helpful than others. Although these ideas come from my work with people with mental illness and substance misuse, most of them work equally well for other issues, such as recovery related to grief, loss, or physical illness.
1) Say you want to help
Sometimes a person in recovery will ask you directly for help. If so, that’s great. But often they may be afraid or embarrassed to ask for assistance. If that’s the case, go ahead and make the first move. Make a clear statement that you want to help them. Keep it simple; just say “I want to tell you I’m here to help in any way I can.”
2) Discuss how you can help
After you have made it clear you want to help and the person is receptive, consider specific ways you can provide assistance. Talk with them about their needs and expectations. “Help” can mean many different things, from providing a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on, or specific tasks such as giving reminders to take medication or providing a ride to the doctor. Come to an agreement about your role and the types of things you both agree are reasonable.
3) Be available
Keep in contact on a regular basis. It’s usually helpful to set a schedule for how often you will check in by phone or in person. If you have agreed to be available 24/7, follow through on that promise. It’s also helpful to have a back-up plan to contact another person in case you aren’t able to respond immediately.
4) Learn more about recovery
As with most worthwhile efforts, you will be more effective if you are better informed. Seek out reputable resources to learn more about the person’s specific issues and ways to promote recovery. I’ve compiled a few useful web sites here to help you get started.
5) Give honest feedback
Ask for permission to offer honest feedback. Once this approval is given, don’t be afraid to offer feedback regularly. Keep it positive by providing frequent encouragement and abundant praise for progress toward a specific goal. Offer constructive and supportive comments and suggestions about things that aren’t going as well to help the person get back on track.
6) Encourage responsibility
Remember that you can’t recover for someone else. While you can offer support, education, and advice, they retain the primary responsibility for their own recovery and for working toward their identified goals. It’s sometimes a delicate balance, but don’t rescue or enable the person by taking on things they should be handling for themselves. Keep offering gentle reminders that they (and not you) are ultimately in charge of their life.
7) Facilitate other supports
A good recovery plan includes multiple supports, so you shouldn’t be the only one helping the person. They may have a therapist and/or prescriber, a support group, and access to peer support services, which involves working with others also in recovery. Help the person stay connected with all of these vital members of their support team. It can often be beneficial to communicate with these other supporters, but only if you are explicitly permitted to do so by the person you are assisting.
8) Promote healthy choices
Recovery should have a holistic focus, which includes nourishment of mind, body, and spirit. To this end, help the person remember to make healthy lifestyle choices. These typically include a balanced diet, physical activity, adequate sleep, social interactions, regular health screenings, involvement in a faith community or spiritual pursuits, and participation in pleasant activities.
9) Focus on the person, not the illness
In the early stages of recovery, the person’s illness can be overwhelming, making it hard for them to remember all of their other unique personal strengths. As recovery progresses, it’s important to help them reclaim the talents, hobbies, interests, goals and dreams they may have had to set aside due to their illness. Eventually, the illness should be seen as only one part of who they are, and not what defines them as a person.
10) Don’t give up
The journey of recovery can be long, challenging, fraught with many setbacks, and often downright discouraging. This can be exhausting for both you and the person in recovery. However, it’s critical to not give up. Keep moving forward slowly and think of the road to recovery as a long-distance marathon and not a 100-meter sprint. As we learned from the fable of the tortoise and the hare, “slow and steady wins the race.”
11) Seek professional help when needed
You certainly don’t have to be a trained mental health professional to help someone in recovery. On the other hand, there are times when the aid of trained professionals is absolutely necessary. These situations primarily include immediate risk of harm to self or others, or times when the person is no longer able to adequately take care of their own basic needs for survival. In these cases, don’t hesitate to take action to see that the person is promptly evaluated by a professional. You may literally save a life.
12) Take care of yourself
You can’t be a fully effective helper to someone else if you aren’t taking care of yourself first. “Caregiver stress” is a well-documented effect from being overwhelmed by long-term stress associated with caring for another person. Arrange for breaks from extended caregiving responsibilities so you can recharge your own batteries. Consider enlisting additional supports such as home health services or similar resources if the caregiving demands exceed your capabilities.
Question: What are some other ways you can support someone in recovery? Please leave a comment. Also please consider subscribing to my blog and feel free to follow me on X (formerly Twitter), “like” my Facebook page, or connect on LinkedIn. Thanks!