The Benefits of Our New Monitoring Program

Monitoring those in recovery through drug tests and other means can be very beneficial to the addicts themselves. (one photo/Shutterstock)

Addiction recovery can be a nerve-racking ordeal for everyone involved. As the addict or alcoholic is attempting to accommodate a new, substance-free way of life, the family and friends find themselves struggling to maintain cautious optimism. Not only can it be hard for them to trust a person who has hurt them in the past, but the care they feel for the person in question makes the thought of relapse absolutely terrifying. Even some employers may be a bit scared that they might lose a once-qualified worker to this disease. Fortunately, our new monitoring program should help ease everyone’s nerves a bit.

Our monitoring program is essentially a way to ensure accountability for those who reside in our sober living facilities. When in treatment, patients find themselves under nearly constant supervision. But when they go back into the world, they have to learn how to be accountable for their own relapse prevention. As they make this transition through sober living, we will help them formulate aftercare plans and monitor them through screens and other means to ensure that they have not suffered a relapse. We will also be as hands-on with their mental/emotional care as possible, so that we can see a relapse coming and stop it in its tracks.

Amethyst believes that quality monitoring services during the sober living process will help many patients to ensure long-term recovery so that they and their families will never have to feel the sting created by this disease again. Below, we will discuss the benefits of monitoring from the perspectives of patients, as well as their friends and families. We will also discuss why we at Amethyst Recovery feel personally that monitoring is an essential part of addiction treatment. We hope that this will enlighten you as to just how crucial an addict’s aftercare regimen can be.

Monitoring in the Eyes of Addicts/Alcoholics

For some recovering addicts and alcoholics, it’s a choice between monitoring or losing their job. (VGstockstudio/Shutterstock)

When many addicts and alcoholics graduate from addiction treatment, they are a bit lost. They do not know precisely where they are going to wind up. Some of them have been shunned by friends and family, and may not be able to see these relationships completely healed until they have been sober for some time. Many others have lost jobs, or have found that their jobs are hanging only by a thread.

Due to the latter of these concerns, many patients find that they are actually required to participate in a monitoring program if they are to maintain their employment. This is especially true of medical professionals who have abused prescription drugs such as fentanyl. There is a path to having their licenses renewed, but it can be quite arduous. They must prove through successful monitoring that they have been able to maintain their sobriety, or the career they have known and loved for years will be right out the window. Others who have held important jobs in major companies will sometimes find their employment contingent on a very similar arrangement. For such persons, Amethyst’s sober living environment would be the ideal atmosphere in which to get sober, as they would be able to pursue their medical license while under our continued care.

Those who seek aftercare at our sober living facilities while attempting to mend bonds with friends and family will also find monitoring to be quite helpful. Many believe that it can take up to two years for trust to be renewed. But if the addict suffers a relapse after a year, then all of the progress they have made can be undone. We have known one patient who relapsed after thirteen months, and was emotionally cut off from his family for nearly half a year while he tried to get his feet back underneath him. But monitoring can be a powerful recovery tool, and will help other patients from making the same mistake.

This can be quite relieving for the patient as well. Relapse is a scary prospect, but there are moments in early recovery during which we may be tempted to give up. The knowledge that the next drug screen may be right around the corner is a strong motivator for many. It helps strengthen the patient’s resolve and, over time, will help them to establish a sober routine that they truly enjoy. By this point, the addict will no longer stay sober just to avoid a positive drug screen. They will do it because this is the way they truly want to live.

Monitoring in the Eyes of Friends/Family

While your loved ones are in our care, you no longer have to wait up all night worrying about whether or not they’ll make it home safe. (Photographee.eu/Shutterstock)

As noted above, the primary benefit to the addict’s loved ones is simply the renewal of trust. Family and friends who once saw a loved one exuding boundless selfishness and pride during their addiction will now see an individual who has demonstrated the willingness to remain in a sober living home and submit to regular monitoring for the sake of their sobriety. As the patient feels relief at the assistance they are receiving in developing a new life, the family breathes an equal sigh of relief that they do not have to worry about their beloved’s safety while under our care.

The family can also be relieved that they are no longer the ones in charge of maintaining the addict’s accountability. Many parents, siblings, spouses and even children have been put in the unfortunate role of trying to maintain the addict’s sobriety for them. They have poured out countless bottles, flushed a seemingly endless supply of drugs, and shouted until their throats were sore—all to no avail. But no longer will they wait up at night, terrified that their loved one may not make it home alive. They will not have to wait by the door, ready to check an alcoholic family member’s breath for whiskey when they come home. That stress has been removed from their lives.

Many friends and family members have also had to stage interventions in the past, and these have often been emotionally trying. Setting up the intervention, fearing that it will not be well-received, and fretting over what to do if the intervention fails will likely have been quite stressful for them. But if the patient does suffer a relapse, we will be the ones pulling these strings. If it is discovered through monitoring that a resident has found a way to use again, we will waste no time in discerning the best course of action moving forward. And since we have been able to administer personalized care while getting to know the case inside and out, it will not be too difficult to determine which extra steps must be taken in the future.

Of course, since our patients tend to become fast friends with their fellow addicts and alcoholics in treatment and sober living, there is no doubt that many people will intervene well before one of our residents has a chance to use again. We will have that opportunity as well, as we can often tell when a patient we are monitoring is headed toward relapse. This should be a major reassurance to friends and family who fear for the success of their loved one’s recovery.

Monitoring in the Eyes of Amethyst Recovery

Amethyst feels that monitoring services are one of the best ways for us to do right by our clients and their families, ensuring that the disease of addiction stays in remission for some time to come. (daizuoxin/Shutterstock)

We at Amethyst Recovery take our jobs very seriously. There are some Florida treatment centers that do not, and we pride ourselves on not being one of them. The ability to catch a relapse before it occurs by monitoring the patient’s disease and assuring that it remains in remission is highly important to us. We have met many scared family members with loved ones who truly wanted to become sober, and it is our goal to do everything in our power to ensure that the wishes of these individuals become reality.

Many of our treatment benefits are therefore open to sober living residents as well. For instance, we have noted in the past that we offer court liaison services to patients with legal issues. Our sober living residents will also receive access to this service, while our monitoring program may help them with probation or other situations that may have necessitated their treatment. Not only are we able to offer them legal help in this way, but we can also mitigate any stress that these situations have caused on them or their families. With this stress out of the way, it is our hope that they may also be less likely to relapse.

Through monitoring, not only do we find that it is much easier to help patients focus on their aftercare plans and ensure long-term sobriety, but we find that many patients and their families are better for it. The best part of our job is seeing the look in someone’s eyes when they express that their life is truly better now than it was when addiction and alcoholism were ruling their household. It is a true pleasure to offer a service that will help so many people discover the joy of sobriety on the beautiful Treasure Coast.

If you are interested in our treatment programs or our sober living facilities, we urge you to contact us. Whether monitoring is something you need for the sake of your employment or simply something you desire for the sake of your family, we can help you. Fighting off a relapse in early recovery can be a difficult task for many, but we are here to help you get through it by all means at our disposal.