You can’t keep it unless you give it away. That’s a common sentiment within the recovery community. It means that to stay sober, you have to help other people. At Safe Harbor Recovery Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, we encourage clients in our residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs to look for ways that they can give back, once they are at the right stage in their own recovery.
Benefits of Giving Back
Helping others doesn’t just help them, but it can also benefit the person who is helping:
- Enhancing their sense of personal empowerment
- Giving them hope for the future
- Providing a sense of purpose
- Increased lifespan
- An opportunity to spend time with your family or friends, doing something constructive together
- Decreasing your risk of depression
- Preventing them from focusing on feelings of victimization and helplessness
- Adding to feelings of gratitude
- Building their sense of empathy toward others
- Reducing boredom and the risk of relapse
- Increasing social connections
- Fighting loneliness
- Identifying hidden talents and interests
- Expanding sober supports
- Leading to job opportunities
- Developing references for jobs
Giving Back to the Recovery Community
Some opportunities to give back to those in recovery include:
- Sponsoring someone else
- Helping to run a recovery meeting
- Transporting someone to a recovery meeting
- Speaking at treatment programs, to share your story with people who are new to recovery
Giving Back Outside the Recovery Community
You can also make a difference in the world outside the recovery community:
- Volunteering at a soup kitchen or food pantry
- Providing meals, emotional support, cleaning, or activities at a homeless shelter or nursing home
- Building or repairing homes for elderly or disabled people
- Working with animals
- Supporting veterans
- Volunteering at a hospital
- Cleaning up a park, campsite, or playground
- Putting away books at a library
- Tutoring adults or children
- Mentoring at-risk kids
- Working at a call center to support people who are suicidal, addicted, runaways, or domestic violence victims
Barriers to Giving Back
Even when people in recovery really want to give back, they sometimes encounter barriers. These may be related to:
- Lack of transportation
- Time limitations
- Criminal history
- Physical disability
- Other issues
There may be ways around these barriers, such as:
- Volunteering as part of a group that may furnish transportation or allow you to arrange a ride with another participant
- Looking for a location closer to you that has similar opportunities, so you don’t need transportation
- Seeking out volunteer options that offer flexible scheduling, so you can work around your other obligations
- Pursuing opportunities that are fully supervised or don’t place you in direct contact with clients, reducing the likelihood that you would need to pass a background check
- Using a computer to complete your volunteer work, so you don’t need to be at a specific location
How to Find Volunteer Opportunities
You may be asked to volunteer by people who meet you in the recovery community, at your spiritual home, through mutual acquaintances, or at your job. You can also seek out opportunities to volunteer through:
- VolunteerMatch
- AmeriCorps
- Virginia State Parks
- Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
- Best Buddies
- United Way
- Volunteers of America
Finding Balance
Giving back can feel really good, and it can be easy to go overboard. Some opportunities can become really time-consuming if you don’t draw a clear line and set limits. Guard your sobriety by continuing to prioritize your self-care, as you begin to give back. This is the best way that you can continue to be available to be a long-term volunteer. If you’re not sure how you’re doing on your self-care, talk to your sponsor, therapist, or someone who knows you really well to ensure that you’re not setting yourself up for relapse by ignoring your own needs.
At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, we believe in the power of giving back, but we encourage clients to spend some time solidifying their own recovery first. We know firsthand that people in recovery are strong, resilient, resourceful, and have a lot to offer their communities, but their big hearts can sometimes put them in positions where they get spread too thin for their own good. At Safe Harbor Recovery Center, our team works with clients to help them develop balance and practice setting boundaries.