30 Days of Substance Abuse Treatment for your Child

How to Encourage Them

While in treatment, they should have already constructed a continuing support plan to continue to stay away from drugs with the help of others. Support should come from sponsors, religious leaders, family, and new sober friends. The addicted people should surround themselves with positive peers who are also abstinent from drugs and alcohol. They should seek support through outpatient counseling sessions and community support organizations. There are many ways you can help them find support and show them support:

• Reinforcing the important message of staying clean and how much progress they have made by completing treatment shows you support them and are proud of their accomplishments.
• Monitor them in a supportive way by ensuring that their social relationships are all positive ones that include sober activities.
• Engage in new meaningful activities, so they aren’t engaging in too many activities that can trigger them to use or be around those using.
• Make sure you encourage them to attend continuing care activities that help support their decision to remain sober.
• Be proud of your son or daughter’s milestones, whether 24 hours or 30, 60 and 90 days. Show that you are proud no matter how long in recovery they are. When you show them your satisfaction, they will feel honored and strive to gain more acceptance and remain sober.
• Help by aiding them to find a spiritual side. Finding faith in a higher power is extremely important during the beginning stages of treatment. Going to church and praying can give someone the faith and hope they need to complete treatment. Encourage them by providing reading material or transportation to and from church services or religious groups.

What Aftercare is Like

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

Aftercare is an important part of recovery. If they go to rehab for 30 days, the treatment doesn’t end when they leave. They need to attend meetings regularly, make doctor appointments, and possibly see a therapist if insurance can cover it or a price can be worked out. Aftercare includes social activities, family events, holidays, and long-term goal planning. When your child leaves rehab make sure you do not do all their planning, but help them by:

• Show them that you can have fun without using a substance. Taking them to the movies or bowling can be a fun experience for the addict and show them that you can still have fun even when substances aren’t involved. Also, this will help them learn alternatives when dealing with stress and the need to relax.
• Talk to them about setting goals for themselves and the family. Personal goals can be as simple as working out at least five times a week, and family goals can be to try to repair broken relationships. This will give them short and long-term goals to look forward to and a reason to stay in recovery.
• Monitor them to make sure they continuously go to meetings and schedule appointments like outpatient programs. They might get lazy and not want to go, which is where you tell them they need to to stay confident in remaining sober.

How to Never Enable Again

Enabling is fixing problems for your children and doing so in a way that interferes with growth and responsibility. If they decide to buy drugs or alcohol with their money instead of paying rent, they should lose their house or apartment. If you are an enabler, you will pay for their rent instead of dealing with the consequences of not having a place to live, which would teach them the importance of responsibility. This is a pattern of unhealthy rescuing that doesn’t allow them to grow up through experience, which will only worsen their dependency. Somethings you can do to stop enabling and begin teaching them to grow independently is:

• Encouragement. Instead of giving them money that they can spend on drugs or alcohol, give them encouragement and strength through words of wisdom to push them to work harder and more hours, so they have their own money and don’t want to spend their hard-earned cash on substances.
• Do not make quick decisions when they ask for something. Instead of answering when you are caught off guard, tell them that you need to think about helping them and work out a plan that they can and will pay you back. If you make quick decisions, it is more likely that you will agree, and they will use this method to continue asking for money.
• Plan with them for how long they can remain dependent on you, whether living with you or receiving an allowance. It is okay for them to borrow money or stay with you if you allow them, but make them pay rent.
• Remember that this is not a popularity contest. Your child will reject you and be upset when you first say no to requests. Do not let this affect your decisions and remain strong. Even though you might feel like you are doing the wrong thing, you are not.

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