Session Eleven: Recovery

Partnering With Families Affected by Concurrent Disorders - Facilitators' Guide

Session Goals

Facilitate discussion about the “journey of recovery” metaphor and how it also applies to family members.
Help participants describe their personal journeys of recovery and think about where they are on this journey.
Help participants to identify factors that can help move them forward in a positive direction.

Content Outline

The role of hope in recovery.
Establishing and sustaining recovery.
Family members’ role in recovery.

Activities

11-1: What does Recovery Mean to Me?
11-2: What does Recovery Mean to my Relative?
11-3: Your Recovery Journey
11-4: Recovery Attitudes Questionnaire

Leaders’ Notes

. . . probably the one thing that resonated the most with me was the idea of . . . I mean, it was not necessarily a separate topic on its own—but it was the idea, or message, of hope. It’s so easy to lose hope in this situation. Actually, it was in the Recovery section. It’s easy to get discouraged and feel hopeless, and I'm sure everybody around the table has felt hopeless sometimes. And, again . . . it’s not surprising when you think about it . . . but to get that message of hope and to hear it from the other family members . . . and to hear how they kind of—they still kind of can see their way out of the situation. Or, how did we word it? We talked about accepting the fact that things may not be the same as they were before—and about how that’s a kind of progress, too. There’s hope in that—like, not feeling discouraged because that’s the best you can hope for. So, that was probably the thing that resonated the most for me . . . that I felt some hope—and not just for me, but for my son as well. Sometimes I think he sees it as hopeless—so it’s important to try and find ways to give him hope, and for us to have hope—and those two things are obviously pretty closely tied together.

The idea that when the person who has co-occurring mental health and substance use problems embarks on a process of recovery, family members also travel their own parallel journeys, strikes a chord with many family members and generates new ideas about what recovery means.

We must also add that not every family member found the whole idea of recovery easy to understand and accept. In fact, one person was actually very frustrated with the idea that people “recovered” from co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Give group members a chance to talk about their reactions to the idea of recovery. People may also have difficulty seeing recovery as something they also go through as caregivers and family members. Often, once the group members begin to understand that recovery means many different things to different people and does not necessarily mean a complete absence of all symptoms for the rest of a person’s life, the notion of a journey or process of recovery becomes much easier to accept. It is then much easier for family members to think about themselves as travelling their own pathways of recovery, in which they may gain acceptance, begin taking better care of themselves, learn to set limits and expectations with their ill loved one and develop a newfound sense of hope and serenity.

Personal stories

It can be helpful to ask participants to describe what their own view of recovery is. Most family members have no difficulty describing the unique ways in which their ill loved ones are on a journey of recovery. We found that several family members with a great deal of experience and many years caring for a loved one had little trouble distinguishing between an ongoing process of recovery and a “cure” for mental health and substance use problems. They could give detailed and specific examples of their ill family member’s recovery.

Some participants even found value in their family member’s relapses and felt that on the whole, in spite of (or perhaps because of) their ups and downs, their ill family members were changing and moving forward even if progress was slow at times.

As we suggested in Session 6, it can also be helpful for facilitators to talk about the journey of recovery in one of their own family members or even in themselves. Again, not every health professional will feel comfortable doing this.

Wisdom written in shorthand

Consider presenting and discussing inspirational recovery sayings (or what many 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) call slogans or “wisdom written in shorthand”). Here are some examples (others can be found in A Family Guide to Concurrent Disorders):

Pain is necessary, suffering is optional!
A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step.
Be part of the solution, not the problem.
There are two days in every week over which we have no control—yesterday and tomorrow. Today is the only day we can change (OR: It is not the experience of today that drives people mad; it is the remorse of yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring).
If nothing changes, nothing changes (OR: If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got).
Feelings aren't facts!
Let go or get dragged.
Expectations are preconceived resentments.
Serenity isn't freedom from the storm; it is peace within the storm.
Intolerance = Contempt, prior to investigation.

Ask group members to choose a saying that speaks to their experience and talk about what it means to them.

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