How to Make Friends During Treatment

Choice House offers men who are struggling with addiction disorders and excessive substance misuse receive help from experienced staff to achieve long term sobriety. If you are seeking addiction recovery treatment, this may sound like an impossibility. But trust us when we tell you that long term sobriety is no fabled myth and is a real, tangible outcome for anyone seeking treatment for their addiction disorder. 

The process of how we go about accomplishing this is through a multipronged approach; there is no one action or therapeutic modality that serves as a one-stop treatment method for addiction disorders or co-occurring mental health issues that often accompany addiction. Rather, it takes a series of small actions that all work toward a common goal. 

One of the most crucial actions along the path to recovery is making new friends during your treatment with individuals in active addiction recovery. Addiction has a tendency to isolate those still actively misusing substances, an isolation that can only lead to feelings of anxiety and depression. Either by pushing others away or having loved ones push them away for their own safety and protection, the majority of addiction recovery patients enter rehab in the least with feelings of being empty, alone, and even worthless. Their addiction has singled them out from society to begin with and their continued actions, albeit much of which is out of control, have only exacerbated an already depressing situation rife with a litany of potential co-occurring mental health issues.

The opportunity to socialize with other patients begins a process of normalizing recovery and increasing individual self-worth. Not only does it start to improve personal morale, but it offers the opportunity to create bonds of friendship right from the start of your new sober life. Humans are social beings, and arguably the ability to communicate and even just relate to other humans in a social context is a basic human need right up there with food, water, and shelter.

Breaking the Cycle of Isolation

Rehab centers like Choice House offer addiction recovery patients an opportunity to break the cycle of isolation, depression, and loneliness that existed previously in their lives. Through a variety of therapeutic modalities, we treat addiction recovery on both a personal one-on-one level but through more group-oriented activities. 

Our goal in these group endeavors is to give patients every opportunity to reconnect with their humanity by creating friendships in early recovery. We seek to create a community of like-minded recovery patients who you can rely on, come to for advice, or even just enjoy an activity like watching a movie, playing pool, or grabbing a coffee. Many of our group therapy sessions are designed to promote these kinds of social settings where men get the opportunity to share and help one another as the progress on their personal path to recovery.

Aside from the group therapy sessions, Choice House also offers a unique outdoor wilderness therapy to improve opportunities for socialization. Being outdoors combined with physical activity are two proven steps that recovery patients can take to boost morale and decrease depression. Add to this the chance to create long lasting friendships and now you have what we call wilderness therapy. Through outdoor activities like hiking, biking, and kayaking, men get the chance to explore and reconnect with nature with their fellow recovery patients. As these groups take to the outdoors, they improve their overall mental health and develop friendships. And, most importantly, they realize that they are far from alone and–surprise–are actually having fun while being sober. 

In addition to Choice House’s wilderness therapy, we have set up a structured sober living campus with the purpose of providing a level of accountability and guidance to patients as they transition back into a more independent and sober lifestyle. This helps many men personally as they begin to work and socialize outside of the context of a rehab facility, but it also further builds the community of men in recovery that begins in our 90 day inpatient services. 

If you are feeling alone or isolated and seeking treatment for substance misuse and addiction disorder, Choice House can help. Located in Boulder County, Colorado, we offer men dual diagnosis treatment methods for addiction disorders and co-occurring mental health issues through our 90 day inpatient program, an intensive outpatient service, and our structured sober living campus. We utilize a variety of therapeutic modalities that are personalized to meet your needs in order to create a new foundation of love, empathy, and understanding on your path to recovery. Our ideal location just outside of the Rocky Mountain National Park allows us to utilize some unique treatment methods, including outdoor wilderness therapy and wolf/animal therapy. Not only are we nestled in the naturally scenic vistas of the Boulder area, but we also only a twenty minute drive from the bustling city of Louisville. This close proximity to a city is helpful for individuals either seeking outpatient services or living at our sober living campus, as you can receive the necessary treatment for your addiction disorder while still having access to city amenities like work and even social events. If our treatment programs for addiction recovery interest you or if you simply just need to talk,please give us a call at (720) 577-4422.