Pursuing Optimal Health in Recovery

As April is National Alcohol Awareness Month, this is an ideal time to reflect on steps that counselors can take to help their clients struggling with alcoholism and drug addiction to reap the full benefits of recovery.

Counseling professionals are well aware that alcoholism and drug addiction are deadly diseases with devastating consequences. They are also undoubtedly familiar with the fact that alcoholics and addicts whose diseases go untreated eventually suffer adverse health consequences, often dying decades before their times. What counselors may not be fully aware of, however, is the fact that millions of people in recovery – perhaps the majority – also shortchange themselves of years, even decades, of joyful living as a direct result of nicotine addiction, compulsive overeating, junk food addiction and/or other self-destructive behaviors they carry over into recovery.

These unhealthy lifestyle patterns can also play a major role in setting the stage for clients to relapse to their former patterns of drinking and drug use. Fortunately, the converse is also true, as a growing body of evidence suggests that a wellness-oriented lifestyle can make a significant contribution to safeguarding against relapse.

Pitfalls associated with unhealthy lifestyle patterns that clients often carry over into their recovery include:

• Failing to build a strong nutritional foundation for lasting recovery
• Succumbing to the perils of nicotine addiction – the leading cause of death among people in recovery
• Lapsing into other “substitute addictions”, including sexual addictions, caffeine addiction and compulsive workaholism.

These unhealthy lifestyle choices conspire to undermine your clients' sobriety, and can block them from experiencing the full benefits of recovery. The good news is that a healthy lifestyle and recovery go hand in hand. The following are some brief suggestions concerning strategies you can incorporate into your counseling practice, to help your clients integrate a wellness lifestyle into their recovery programs.

•  Helping your clients lay a solid nutritional foundation for their recovery – As alcohol and sugar have very similar chemical properties, people entering recovery have a strong tendency to overindulge in candies, pastries and other sweets. This can trigger severe spikes and subsequent “crashes” in blood sugar level, which can intensify the mood swings and irritability commonly experienced in early sobriety. People in recovery generally require special coaching in transitioning to a healthy, whole-foods-based diet that is fully supportive of lasting sobriety. I generally advise clients to follow the “3 + 3 rule” and eat three small, nutritious meals daily, interspersed with three nutritious snacks. This eating pattern helps normalize blood sugar levels, promoting maximum energy and alertness throughout the day.

•  Breaking the cycle of nicotine addiction – The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that approximately 70 percent of alcoholics smoke more than one pack of cigarettes a day. Unfortunately, the majority of alcoholics carry their smoking behavior over into recovery, and nicotine addiction is the leading cause of death among people in recovery. Working in the addictions field, I have sadly witnessed the untimely deaths of far too many friends and associates who painstakingly worked their recovery programs, only to succumb to the deadly consequences of cigarette smoking.

Counselors can perform an invaluable life-saving intervention by confronting their clients about their addiction to nicotine, and helping them formulate a strategy for quitting. A counselor who is a former smoker also can serve as a role model by sharing his/her own struggles in kicking the habit. Appropriate referral resources include Nicotine Anonymous, toll-free stop smoking help lines, physicians familiar with the special needs of people in recovery, and low-cost stop smoking classes offered by the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and many health plans.

•  Other Avenues for Wellness Intervention – Counselors are in an ideal position to support healthy lifestyle choices among clients in recovery by encouraging them to engage in regular exercise, to discover and embrace their unique sense of purpose for being on this planet, and to nurture a support system that is fully conducive to promoting sustained sobriety and healthy living. Regular exercise is especially helpful in grounding clients in their sobriety, as when we exercise we facilitate the body's production of endorphins – chemical messengers that trigger the pleasure centers in the brain, producing a natural drug-free high. Exercise also provides an effective vehicle for releasing day-to-day stresses, and a growing body of evidence attests to the value of exercise in safeguarding against relapse.

In conclusion, there are many avenues available to counselors to support your clients in integrating a healthy lifestyle into their recovery programs. By pursuing this path, counselors can add an exciting new dimension to their work as counseling professionals, while simultaneously helping their clients to fully embrace the many benefits of life in recovery.

John Newport is a regular contributor to Counselor, The Magazine for Addiction Professionals, and author of The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. For more information on wellness and recovery, visit his website www.wellnessandrecovery.com .