The group has always been emphasized in the recovery process, and for a good reason. Being in a group helps most people. It gives them the confidence to try new things. To lower their inhibitions and open up to new possibilities. To learn ways to cope emotionally. To learn to trust others again, and eventually learn to help others recover better.
But some are skeptical of the effectiveness of group activities in recovery. While the twelve-step program and group therapy, in general, are by no means the only effective options for addiction recovery – it is, after all, an individual process and everyone must find their own rhythm – there is a lot of research to back up that recovering in a group is highly effective, and in select cases it’s more effective than solo treatment. Here’s why.
They’re Fun!
The simplest argument to make is that it’s just much more enjoyable to fight against addiction by meeting and getting to know others who are going through the same thing. You get to learn just how many different people can get into a life of addiction in different ways, you learn entirely new ways to put your own experiences into context. You meet interesting individuals with extremely interesting stories, and activities let you all come together and learn to rely on one another to accomplish goals – just like how you can rely on one another to motivate and inspire against addiction.
The reason this works the way it does is because we’re tribal beings. There is no doubting that the individual human being is complex and certainly capable of functioning independently, but we are still tribal beings that rely on families, communities, societies and civilizations. In an effectively-led group, our team-mentality kicks in, and we support one another and feel a certain kinship towards one another simply because that’s our instinct for survival.
In a more modern context, group activities and group therapy help us deal with our own personal issues because they give us a sense of purpose within the group, give us a sense of belonging, and let us explore and share a part of our life we could never explore with family and friends who haven’t gone through an addiction.
Groups Empower
That leads into the second point, which is that not only are groups fun, but they empower. Personal empowerment is a massive part of recovery. Addiction can make us feel powerless and stripped of our agency, made slaves to a substance or behavior. By building our self-confidence and self-esteem, and holding ourselves accountable to bigger and better things – by finding a purpose and feeling some pride in our accomplishments – we can slowly rebuild that sense of self, and that sense of agency.
In a group, among others who are going through recovery, we can each do our part and accomplish things together. In a group, we feel the whole weight and support of the group behind us when we endeavor to do things like stop drinking, quit smoking, or put down the gear permanently. And whenever temptation strikes, we remember our group, we remember the people whom we promised sobriety, and we remember that we’re all counting on one another to stay sober, to stay sharp.
People to Connect With
When you’re recovering from addiction, it’s hard to put your experiences into understandable terms with people who haven’t been through a similar experience. It can feel lonely, and the first few weeks into sobriety can be especially painful when alone as you’ll have no one to relate to and talk about the rapidly shifting moods you’re dealing with.
Addiction feeds off isolation – even those who choose to recover alone still look towards friends and family to help and to communicate with. If you can’t talk about how you feel and can’t effectively get all your thoughts off your chest, they’ll pile up into emotional plaque and create a problem – one that feeds the inner need to resort to addiction again.
In a group with other recovering addicts, you can listen to familiar stories and relate to emotional and painful experiences. You can focus on exploring how you really feel, and get a sense of relief by getting to the core of your emotional issues.
Helping Others Helps You
Research shows that it’s beneficial for the psyche to help others. By helping others, we become empowered because we feel useful – we receive gratitude and thanks for what we’ve done, and it helps validate that we are important, and we do matter. It also helps us move another step away from addiction because we no longer need it to see things in a better light and cope with depressing issues.
The reason we’re happy when we help others or give them something is because the act of unconditionally gifting one another things and doing things for each other is part of healthy social behavior – back when things were far scarcer than they are today, sharing was necessary to keep a community alive and healthy.
At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with deciding to deal with an addiction alone. Plenty of people do it, and it’s most definitely possible. In fact, due to the stigma of addiction, the cost of treatment and several other factors, it’s even been suggested that most recovered addicts did so all on their own.
The question isn’t what’s an ideal way to recover – it’s why being in a group can help most people recovery faster. But there are always exceptions: for example, there are some people who are unaffected by group mentality, who feel uncomfortable sharing anything with others, and who don’t consider social interaction with people they don’t have much in common with fun. For these people, group activities and group therapy might not be ideal.
But for most people, the truth is that recovering together is better. And it’s easy to do. All you must do is find the courage in you to seek out your local recovery group or sober living community, and take a day to explore your options. Talk to other recovering addicts. Learn more about their journey, their experiences. Compare different perspectives and find out how much your views on addiction are alike.
Before you know it, you might make some new friends and open to an entire world of possibilities in recovery you might never have considered.