The First Year of Recovery: Why Its So Difficult and How To Thrive Despite The Odds

Recent National Institute of Health studies reveal that 85% of individuals with substance use disorders relapse within the first year of recovery. Why is that? And why do relapse rates decline as one spends more time in recovery?

Well, for starters, addiction is an incredibly devastating disease that can become worse even when those affected aren’t “showing symptoms”. They could be completely sober, involved in their community, and even giving back to those in need. The bottom line is: in the first year of recovery, the brain simply is not accustomed to finding pleasure, or receiving dopamine, from sources outside of drugs and alcohol.

During this time, the conscious mind can easily convince the newly sober person that the only way to obtain the same level of pleasure or relief is through the substances and behaviors that were previously sought. After all, they’re doing all this work but still feel irritable and discontent!

This is a lie the “addict brain” likes to tell. While it is common to feel this way, feelings are fleeting, and in order to instill long-term neurochemical change, in order to get the same dopamine hit from sustainable and non-destructive sources, one must go through these “growing pains”.

With each trigger that is shut down, with each craving that is not given into, the plasticity of the brain yields itself to learning that we are not going to drink or use, and that we simply have to make due with the dopamine that we have, or find better sources of it.

This is why at Bluebonnet, we educate the members of our Community on the nature of addiction and provide opportunities for them to find their kicks in the form of new hobbies, social events, meditation, exercise, et al.

This approach combined with a prolonged period of time spent in a safe environment with proper structure and accountability provides the springboard one can use to dive into a life full of joy, wonder, and yes, plenty of dopamine.

Once an addict or alcoholic is past this first year mark, it is far easier to look at their life, see how much delta is between where their lives were and where they are now, and realize they actually don’t want to crack the foundation of sobriety it was built on.