At Castle Craig, patients are connected with the local AA community while they are in treatment, then connected with communities at home before they leave. During our two year aftercare programme of outpatient therapy, patients can continue to connect with and support one another in their recovery.
- Break bread to break bad habits: Coming together for a meal is a precious time during the long days of treatment. Though you’re with your peers all day, most of your time is scheduled to be in therapy, wellness, or lecture groups. Mealtimes have no other requirements but to break bread together, talk, laugh, and be together in a different way. Invite everyone to eat together and to get to know one another. When you break bread together, you break bad habits like isolation, restrictive eating, and other maladaptive practices. It may seem like just a meal. Beyond the act of eating is a deeply rooted form of socialisation.
- Find opportunities to volunteer in AA and beyond: Castle Craig emphasises the participation of patients in local AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, groups. Alcoholics Anonymous is full of volunteer opportunities which are called “commitments”. You can simply stand at the door and greet people, bring the tokens and chips to meetings, or time the length of meeting attendee’s sharing. While in treatment, your opportunities to volunteer in the community are small because you are temporarily living in an intentionally smaller world. Getting used to volunteering through AA will encourage you to branch out after treatment.
- Offer your name and phone number to newcomers and to old timers: Being new in recovery makes you an asset to people who are newer than you and those who have much more time than you do. Even if you are just a few days ahead of someone else who has just come to treatment, you can stand as a testament to the experience, strength, and hope of recovery. You’re already living life one day at a time, which is the most important thing for newcomers to learn when they first come to the programme. Reaching out to “old timers” or those who have many years of recovery behind them is helpful for you to gain resources, connect with others, and help them as well. As a newcomer, you serve as a reminder to them of they they continue to stay sober in recovery.
- Sit with new people in treatment and get to know them: Not too long ago, you were the “new kid on the block” in your treatment programme, feeling broken, lost, confused, and in a bit of a daze. Someone ahead of you in the programme lovingly reached out a hand to reassure you that everything will turn out alright. They offered to show you the ropes, give you the inside scoop on life during treatment, and answer questions you had. Offer the same to others who are desperate to be seen, acknowledged, and heard.
- Stay true to your recovery and treatment process: The best way to be of service to others during treatment is to continue setting an example. Staying true to your recovery and treatment process is an example of discipline and willingness, two things everyone needs for their treatment experience.
Castle Craig is changing lives with a proven model for treatment. Serving over 10,000 patients for over 25 years, our high rates of success stand as testimony for the exceptional clinical and holistic work being done in our drug and alcohol program. Patients leave Castle Craig in optimum health of mind, body, and spirit, equipped to maintain long term abstinence. Call our 24 hour free confidential phone-line: 01721 546 263. From outside the UK please call: +44 808 271 7500
