According to Addiction Relapse Prevention, approximately 50% of people relapse within the first 12 weeks. However, the risk of recovery burnout in long-term recovery is often overlooked. Recovery burnout is an important phenomenon. As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notes, 7 in 10 adults are in addiction recovery. Therefore, recognizing recovery burnout can be invaluable to maintaining long-term recovery.
At Driftwood Recovery, we know recovery is a journey that continues long after addiction treatment. However, we also know how difficult it can be to stay connected to a sober community. Losing those recovery connections over time makes it easier to lose yourself in recovery. The work needed to maintain recovery, especially alone, can increase recovery burnout. Therefore, we are dedicated to providing a vibrant alumni program with support and accountability. With support and connection with alumni, you can avoid recovery burnout to sustain recovery.
However, you may still have questions about recovery burnout. What is recovery burnout, and what causes it? How does recovery burnout impact your long-term well-being and recovery?
What Is Recovery Burnout?
You may be familiar with burnout concerning other domains like work and school. Burnout has recently become synonymous with healthcare workers and college students. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), burnout is a syndrome that comes from chronic workplace stress that is not effectively managed. Thus, burnout, in general, is often thought of as an occupational phenomenon.
However, the world has expanded to be entangled in other domains and life challenges. Recovery, much like treatment, requires a lot of courage and work to build and maintain. Therefore, when you have been in recovery for a while, you can start to feel exhausted from the effort, time, and commitment you have to put into sustaining recovery.
Recovery burnout is a loss of the energy that motivates your dedication to recovery. Moreover, recovery burnout can lead to negative feelings about recovery as the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion takes over. Although entering recovery after the structure of a residential treatment program can feel daunting, it may be difficult to imagine ever experiencing recovery burnout. You may think of recovery as this grand prize for all your hard work and the final step in a new life. While recovery does present an opportunity for a new, fulfilling life without substances, it is not a destination.
Misconceptions that recovery is the end of the journey are born out of the pink cloud syndrome in early recovery. Thus, understanding the pink cloud syndrome can help you better understand how recovery burnout develops.
Pink Cloud Syndrome: Understanding Challenges of Early Recovery
Although recovery is a lifelong process, there are some stages on your journey to recovery. Some of the stages of recovery include seeking support, detox, treatment, and early recovery. In and around early recovery is where pink cloud syndrome or pink clouding is found. Pink cloud syndrome is the phase in early recovery following withdrawal symptoms that leave you filled with feelings of euphoria and elation.
In many ways, pink cloud syndrome is like the honeymoon phase of recovery in which you have just discovered the joy of life without substances. Moreover, you are overjoyed and optimistic about the progress you have made and are completely confident in your ability to maintain recovery. Feeling happy about the progress you have made toward recovery is something you should be proud of. However, the dangers of pink cloud syndrome are an unrealistic and overconfident perspective that does not last. Some of the issues of pink cloud syndrome include:
- Preoccupation with the positive aspects of recovery
- Excessive optimism
- Withdrawal from your support system
Thus, ignoring the reality of recovery as a dynamic process with peaks and valleys sets you up for recovery burnout.
Addressing Unhealthy and Health Habits in Recovery
With recovery burnout, you can get stuck in unhealthy habits that leave you feeling unbalanced and overworked. Thus, recognizing and addressing unhealthy habits is important to effective long-term recovery. According to NIH News in Health, habits often arise through repetition and when the brain’s reward centers are triggered. Therefore, healthy and unhealthy habits often stem from the same process. For example, your brain may crave the reward feeling and familiarity of one too many glasses of wine before bed, the same way meditating before bed can become a healthy habit. Yet, how do you dismantle the unhealthy habits of overachieving in recovery burnout?
Finding Healthy Ways to Cope With Recovery Burnout
The NIH states that changing unhealthy habits is a process. Recovery does not happen overnight or require perfection, as pink clouding and early recovery lead you to believe. Your ability to find balance in recovery and avoid recovery burnout starts with building healthy coping strategies to combat stress and an overachiever mentality. While everyone’s needs to overcome recovery burnout is unique, some adaptive coping skills you can use to reestablish balance include:
- Recognize and accept your feelings
- Give yourself space to relax
- Set boundaries
- Reach out for support
- Find healthy outlets
- Drawing
- Journaling
- Make time for wellness
- Yoga
- Sleep hygiene
- Change up the recovery resources you use
- Online and app-based resources
- Sober activities
With greater self-awareness, you can effectively address and reduce your risk for recovery burnout.
Fostering Recovery Burnout Tools for Lasting Recovery at Driftwood Recovery
At Driftwood Recovery, we know the connection to self and others in alumni is vital to sustained recovery. No matter where you are on your recovery journey, it can be thrilling and overwhelming. Feeling overwhelmed in recovery is not something to feel ashamed about but rather something you acknowledge and lean on your support system for. Healing is not meant to be done alone, and engaging with alumni reminds you that balance in recovery is possible. Through a peer-driven network, you can find the support, resources, guidance, and accountability you need to lead a courageous life in recovery.