Aftercare Planning: Sober Companions
After breaking free from the physical and mental withdrawals that come from a substance use disorder, the next step is learning how to live a meaningful and productive life in recovery. But making this progress can be incredibly difficult to do on your own – and a sober companion can help show you how to reap the benefits of sobriety in your everyday life.
A sober companion can be a valuable source of support, accountability, and lived experience. They can be an incredible resource for people new to living in recovery and can help you maintain the sobriety that you worked so hard to earn.
The Role of Sober Companionship
The primary role of a sober companion is to help you stay sober. But recovery is a complicated endeavor and not one that comes naturally to a person who has lived for years with a substance use disorder. Recovery is about much more than mere sobriety – it is a holistic lifestyle change, often resulting in a wholesale change in your ways of thinking, your behavior, your social life, and the way you approach life’s challenges.
While addiction therapy and treatment options can help people grapple with the largest of these issues, they often aren’t equipped to help with the minute details of everyday life that can lead to triggers, cravings, or setbacks in your recovery.
A sober companion, on the other hand, excels in these exact situations. Most sober companions have a personal lived experience with addiction and have been in recovery themselves for some time. This provides them with a wealth of experience that can be incredibly helpful – both in terms of the major problems people face in early sobriety, as well as the petty frustrations and small hangups that can lead to people becoming discouraged in their recovery.
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How Do Sober Companions Help
Sober companions fill a unique role in the addiction treatment landscape. Sober companions can provide a wealth of benefits and services, including:
- Acting as a life coach
- Being a source of accountability
- Mentorship through 12-Step programs or other support groups
- Providing practical lifestyle advice
- Spiritual guidance
- Offering emotional support through difficult situations
- Helping you practice the principles of relapse prevention
- Education about addiction and the strategies of recovery
Above all else, a sober companion knows how to stay sober – and can help you to do the same. But since they offer such a wide range of services, sober companions are often employed for several different reasons.
For example, some people employ sober companions when they want to attend events where alcohol is being served, but they are unsure about whether they’ll be able to stay sober on their own. Having a companion who can provide support and keep you accountable in this situation can be incredibly beneficial.
Other people employ sober companions to learn how to deal with the everyday challenges that can lead to relapse. Sober companions have the experience to guide people through troubling experiences, can offer healthy coping mechanisms to overcome stress, and show people in real-time how to make the lifestyle changes needed to maintain your sobriety for years to come.
But most of all, sober companions can help with a problem that affects nearly everyone in early recovery – the feeling of being alone in your journey to sobriety. Sober companions can help because they’ve felt this way too, and can show you that there are other people who can truly empathize with your position and have made it through to the other side.
Who Benefits from Sober Companionship?
A sober companion can be helpful for nearly anyone in recovery, but they provide the most help for people who are newly sober or struggling to find the motivation to stay sober. The companionship, accountability, and support of a sober companion can help people who:
- Have recurring thoughts of relapse
- Struggle with regular drug or alcohol cravings
- Feel bored or underwhelmed in recovery
- Have recurring mental health symptoms
- Haven’t made significant lifestyle changes since stopping substance use
People who have just completed a medical detox or treatment program are typically the best candidates for sober companionship. Highly structured styles of addiction treatment can make it much easier for people to get and stay sober – but the removal of these support structures when people go back to their daily tasks can often be difficult. A sober companion is a bridge, helping people continue the work of recovery after they’ve returned home.
Working With a Sober Companion
Each sober companion takes a unique approach to helping their clients overcome their challenges with addiction. Some work primarily as a spiritual guide, while others emphasize diet and exercise as a core part of their approach. Some sober companions offer 24/7 support, ready and on call if for if you wake in the middle of the night with drug or alcohol cravings that you cannot control on your own.
Like so many other aspects of addiction treatment, sober companionship relies on the strategies that work for you. Finding the right sober companion can help you focus on what matters most, resist the temptation to turn back to a life of substance misuse, and achieve a lasting sobriety that lets you reap the rewards of recovery.
Finding Sober Companionship With Kinkaid Private Care
Kinkaid Private Care offers a wealth of addiction treatment services for people who want the best in evidence-based healthcare. Our team has decades of experience helping people from all walks of life break free from addiction and can help you find the sober companion that suits your needs and can help you find meaning, purpose, and happiness in your recovery.
Sober companions are just one of the aftercare planning strategies we offer for people who have completed our in-home medical detox or other treatment services. To learn more about our comprehensive and holistic approach to helping people achieve sobriety, call our team today at (866) 337-4596 or fill out our confidential online contact form for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Recovery isn’t always easy – but it is possible, provided you get the evidence-based care you need from true addiction professionals. Call Kinkaid Private Care today to take the first steps, and regain the control over your life that addiction has taken away from you.