First of all you probably should make a decision about the size of the social circle you require. This is a factor of your personality as well as your needs and stage of your drug addiction treatment. The more outgoing you are the larger the group, but even if you are not gregarious, the size of the group must support the amount of assistance you might require. When just coming out of a drug rehab facility, you might be using your social support quite heavily and thus want to insure you have enough people in your circle so as not to exhaust them, or overuse and overburden them.

Also key in the process is to insure that those involved in your social circle benefit from a mutually satisfying process. You must share the good as well as the bad, and support their needs as well. For this to truly help it must be a two way street. Above all be thankful and acknowledge your gratitude to those around you who care.

If you have just left a drug rehab, go slow in restoring friendships and relationships. This is especially true of ones that might have been damaged by your addiction. Give them some time to see the changes you have worked on in your addicition treatment. Also there is no need to discuss every detail of the issues you covered in rehab. Over time what is appropriate to discuss will be evident. Sometimes in the excitment of demonstating the changes in your life, you may reveal things that later you you wish you had left unsaid.

Have a plan for a crisis situation no matter what. Include a back-up plan, in case that person is not available. Again this would best be done before you left the drug rehab or treatment facility. Once your emergency plan is in place, take the time to contact others gradually and keep the first contacts brief pleasant and upbeat. Get permission from someone before you call them at 3 a.m. Respect that others have lives and commitments as well. While your addiction treatment is a large priority in your life, make sure that in your conversations and contacts you have balance. Find common interests that have nothing to do with substance abuse or recovery.

As you re-establish your contacts, gradually discuss the type of support you require. There will be appropriate moments to point out the strengths of your friends, such as their honesty, and how that might help you. Again remember to give the type of support you wish to receive. Above all, don’t use your support system and a dumping ground to constantly unload all your frustrations. In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie said don’t criticize, condemn, or complain. Even when discussing your problems, you can stay focused on the solutions. Nobody ever want to listen to someone go on and on about how difficult addiction is. Look for the gifts, and insights your drug addiction has given you and talk about the great changes you wish to make and how you will make them. Ask them about things in their life they wish to change and how you might support them. Following some of these suggestions will help your build a solid caring support system, and some really great friends as well,

This entry was posted on Friday, May 20th, 2005 at 6:32 am and is filed under Drug Addiction, Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.