How to Mentor For Drug Recovery

Becoming a mentor for drug recovery is an important role that involves a great deal of responsibility and discipline. To help another on his path toward sobriety, you have to be certain of your strength and resilience regarding control over your own addiction. This role, however, can be extremely rewarding. Not only does becoming a mentor help you stay on your own path toward abstinence, but it gives you the opportunity to help others on the road toward freedom from drugs.

Things You'll Need

• Literature on drug recovery

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Instructions

• 1

  Join an organization or community whose goal is to promote drug addiction awareness and encourage members to stay clean and sober. 12-step programs, such as Narcotics Anonymous, are popular, easy to find, and have proved effective. Go to this meeting on a regular basis, and become as active as possible within the community.

• 2

  Complete the program that your organization promotes. If you are working in a 12-step program, take the time to go through all 12 steps, and complete them in their entirety. Depending on how far into recovery you are when you join the program, this can take anywhere from several months to several years. It requires not only time, but dedication and emotional effort. By the time you complete the 12 steps, you should be familiar enough with the steps and sufficiently mentally prepared to become a mentor.

• 3

  Communicate your desire to become a mentor or sponsor to the leaders in your community. Discuss the responsibilities and possibilities with members who are currently mentors to get tips and guidance. Mentally prepare yourself for the role, and fortify your own path of abstinence and recovery, realizing that now you must not only be strong for yourself, but also for another person.

• 4

  Get to know your mentee when a match has been made. This can be arranged by other leaders, or you may be approached by a new member if your leadership status is already apparent within the community.

• 5

  Help your mentee navigate through the program literature (such as the 12 steps), and introduce him to other members within the community. Explain any terminology or routines that may be unfamiliar to him. Actively work to make him feel like part of the group, and ensure that he feels comfortable in the community.

• 6

  Make yourself available to your mentee in times of crisis and hardship. Encourage him to call you if he feels as though he may relapse, and try to give him the strength and courage to resist. Monitor your mentee's progress, and help him stay on his path toward recovery to the best of your ability.