True North Alumni

While in our care, we teach you the skills required to achieve lasting sobriety and improved mental health. After that, the responsibility shifts to you, but we neither expect nor want you to do it alone. In the grand scheme of things, your time in treatment is short in comparison to the full arc of your recovery. To make the lessons you learn at Lakeview Health stick – and to navigate the ups and downs of the process – we offer ongoing support. By “ongoing,” we mean months and years, not just days and weeks.

Completing an addiction treatment program isn’t the end of the support you’ll receive. Early recovery can be daunting for many individuals. For many, there is an overwhelming fear of relapse. It’s important to understand that relapse, while not desired, is a part of the recovery process. What matters most is that when you relapse, you turn back to the path of recovery. The best way to do this is by being a part of a supportive community. Our alumni program and aftercare program gives patients the tools they need to stay sober. It allows individuals to practice their skills, refine and improve them, while also having the outlets necessary when stress and triggers confront them. 

Also, our alumni program gives you something to contribute to and not just take from. Encouraging responsibility is a major part of group therapy and community support groups but another key part is accountability. This is not just for oneself but learning how to hold others accountable in a healthy manner and helping them take responsibility so they can grow in sobriety. After addiction treatment, it’s vital to be involved and have a purpose beyond oneself. Our alumni program provides you with this opportunity. 

Social Support: An Essential Component of Recovery

Our biopsychosocial approach to treatment places as much emphasis on the social aspect of your sustained sobriety as on the biological and psychological aspects. You spend a great deal of your time in treatment learning about your addiction, unlearning old habits, and forming new ones. Our clinical staff monitors the biological and psychological aspects of your recovery, but that’s not the entire picture. You also get a solid and practical understanding of how social support groups work.

Recovery doesn’t occur in a vacuum. More simply put, it is always more of a challenge to heal and stay sober when alone. In treatment, whether the program you participated in was residential, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient, group work and learning how to return to everyday social settings only now sober always involves working with others. Through our aftercare programs and participating in our alumni program, patients stay in touch with others. They avoid unnecessary and unhealthy isolation. Patients determine their own level of involvement but support is always there, ready to help without judgment. 

Research indicates social support is more crucial than most people realize. An important statistic many aren’t aware of: “People who add at least one non-drinking member to their social network show a 27 percent increase at 12 months post-treatment in the likelihood of treatment success, and sustaining abstinence.” Simply put, adding just one sober person to your life dramatically increases your chances of staying sober. Having someone in your life that understands your need and desire to live a sober lifestyle makes doing so just that much easier. There’s no reason to make things more difficult for yourself in recovery than it needs to be. Our alumni program is designed to help in exactly this manner.