- Hello, and welcome to the "Roadmap for Recovery,"
a family education video produced by the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration.
Stage 2, the honeymoon--
also referred to as early abstinence--
is called a honeymoon because people start to feel better.
Abstinence means no illicit drug or alcohol use at all.
People in recovery should feel good about reaching this point,
but they may also think their addiction problems
are behind them now, and that's not the case.
Many things can lead to relapse during the honeymoon stage,
including overconfidence, "workaholism,"
secondary drug or alcohol use, and paranoia.
Of particular note is the excess of energy
that makes it difficult to prioritize.
It may be difficult deciding which things are important to do
and which things can wait.
Scheduling is one way to assist with making these decisions.
- I felt good about myself.
I started to feel like I belonged someplace.
Where I used to feel like I belonged,
I started to feel like I belonged
as a result of not using.
I felt a part of, I felt a sense of belonging.
Those are all gradual things that I started to feel,
but emotionally I was starting to feel more comfortable
within myself being clean and sober.
Where I used to fight that and used to numb those feelings,
to escape those ill feelings,
I was learning to deal with them emotionally.
- During stage two, people have more energy
and may try to do too much.
This can lead to burnout and relapse.
This energy can be directed toward activities
that build recovery,
but it can also lead to overconfidence.
That can make people believe they don't need treatment
and can return to their former life without using.
Or they may think they can handle substance use,
as long as they don't go back to their "problem" use.
- Reentry's really brutal, you know.
And it's very delicate.
If you don't have other people around you
that have experienced that, telling you what to expect
and that it's okay, you know,
it's a very hard thing for people to get through.
- And unfortunately, when you're in the honeymoon,
you just feel great.
And that's a nice feeling,
but there's more work to be done.
It gives you the feeling that you don't have to work at this
and that's not the case.
You have to work at your recovery all the time.
Participation in recovery is the only way it will get done.
You know, I mean, you have to--
"Recovery" is an action verb, not a passive verb.
- Family members need to stay involved during this period,
even if their loved one seems confident.
It's easy to believe that the problem is solved
and the hard work is over.
Families should be supportive
and stay alert for signs of relapse.
Be careful about the use of alcohol or illicit drugs.
Use in the recovering person's living space
is an invitation to relapse.
Family members need their own support from one another
and from outside the family.
Going to Family Education groups provides an opportunity
to talk with others.
- So you want to try to help them as much as you could.
And like I said, they have to accept
there were problems that they have.
And then once they come to that "acception"
and understanding and learning,
that's when they start pulling themselves together
in the family.
And then you have like
a little intervention with the family and say, you know,
"How can we help him? How can we help her?"
So like for us,
we have our native culture, our native backgrounds
and it's healing.
And we use that in a spiritual background.
We use all those things, all those tactics.
We all put them together as a family.
And we sit down and we ask him--
what can work and what will not work?
It's better to have it open, you know, an open conversation.
Like for me, you know, the whole family had to sit down
without him and discuss what we're going to talk about,
instead of getting mad, raising voices and losing him again.
So that way, we all got together,
and we all said what we thought was good.
And today, you know, today we've never had what we have today.
- As my sponsor says,
detachment with love, but be there.
Be there whenever they call up.
I call him up all the time. He's always there.
Always. No matter where I'm at.