Giving Back

Giving up drugs is a process that takes enormous time and energy, not just from you but also from those that have helped you to get clean and stay clean. There often comes a point in recovery where you may feel the need to help others who struggle with addiction. Giving back is a natural part of bettering yourself. It's a natural progression from self-actualization to self-transcendance.

You don't have to be a 12 step sponsor to practice giving back. There are many ways to give back. You simply do what feels right and natural to you.

Like raising awareness, giving back can take many forms. In fact, raising awareness in itself is an essential aspect of giving back. Raising awareness for addiction and medication-assisted recovery helps other addicts by paving the way for better, more accessible treatments and helping to lessen the stigma that keeps so many suffering addicts from seeking help. If  you've progressed to a place in your recovery where you want to give back the support you have recieved, raising awareness is a great place to start. You can read about ways to raise awareness in my former post called Raising Awareness.

Volunteering your time to a local program or treatment facility is another,  more direct way to give back. You can look into your local programs and offer your time to one that appeals to you. There are detox centers, outreach and prevention programs, needle exchange programs, mobile units, and many other programs that need the assistance of dedicated volunteers to function.

Substance abuse counseling is a way to give back while making a living. Counseling addicts is stressful and often thankless, and the burnout rates for addictions counselors are among the highest (about 5,000 vacated counselor positions need to be filled each year). Drug and alcohol counselors are often overworked and underpaid, but it is also a calling for many dedicated people who want to make a difference. For them, counseling is rewarding in many ways. When a client relapses into active addiction, it isn't seen as a failure. A good counselor knows a seed of knowledge has been planted that the addict can cultivate when he or she is ready for recovery. Positivity is essential when dealing with addiction, as with any chronic disease.

Many programs and treatment facilities are utilizing a peer support model as a means to provide added support, especially to those clients who have trouble succeeding in the traditional counselor-client relationship. Peer support programs work on the principle of one addict helping another, as equals, which has been overlooked in recent years as more and more non-recovering people have enetered the field of substance abuse treatment. The growing success of these programs reiterates the importance of the peer relationship in recovery and re-invigorates the idea that a recovering addict's experience can be an invaluable tool for a fellow addict in need.

Giving back is an opportunity to make a difference in someone's life and a chance to remember where we came from. In the case of drug addiction, straying too far from our past can jeopardize our future. No matter how many years we have been sober, we are only one fix away from active addiction. Looking at someone in active addiction with digust or condescendence is a tell-tale sign that we have forgotten we came from. Knowing where we came from allows us to avoid repeating history and help others with true empathy.

Giving back is also (and perhaps best) accomplished by becoming a positive, productive member of society, by being the best person you can be.