Building a Recovery Support System

Healthy and supportive relationships with family, friends, and peers or other recovering individuals offer many potential benefits. The pressure to use substances decreases, the tendency to isolate oneself lessens, there are opportunities to reach out for help and support in times of stress or need, and there are opportunities to share mutual interests or experiences. Organizations can also be a major part of a client’s recovery support system. There are, however, numerous barriers to asking for help and support. The objectives of this chapter are to review the client’s social support system to identify the nature of current relationships, to identify the benefits of a recovery support system, to identify specific individuals and organizations that the client can include in his or her support network, and to help the client become aware of and overcome barriers to asking for help and support.