Many traditional treatment centers think of recovery as having a clear beginning and ending. These traditional ideas of sobriety view getting sober as recovery. While sobriety is an important part of the journey, no longer using substances does not address how addiction entered your life or how it has impacted your life. As the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) notes, recovery is a process of change in which you work to improve your health and wellness, find independence, and reach your full potential as an individual. Therefore, addressing your needs for stable employment can be an important part of your recovery journey.
Moreover, as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) states, recovery is a highly personal process that occurs across multiple pathways. The process of recovery is a holistic approach to care that acknowledges the interconnected relationship between your experiences and your substance use. Holistic support cares for you as a whole person and addresses your specific needs as an individual and as a member of your community. Thus, true recovery is a commitment to giving you the tools you need to thrive as an individual, as a peer, as a member of your family, and as a member of your community.
At Rancho Recovery, we know recovery is a personal journey. Therefore, we are committed to using tailored treatment strategies to find that unique key that unlocks the right path for your healing. We are with you on every step of your journey to be the healthiest and the most fulfilling version of yourself. Through a comprehensive range of support services, at Rancho Recovery, you have access to healing and transformational care. We are here to support and guide you in your needs as a whole person, whether that is in stable employment, investing in your self-care, connecting with your family and peers, or reconnecting with your faith.
Recovery happens as you address and engage in healing every part of yourself. As SAMHSA points out, there are four major dimensions of recovery that can support your healing:
- Health
- Learning how to overcome or manage symptoms
- Engaging in self-education to make informed, healthy choices
- Supports your physical, mental, and emotional well-being
- Home
- Access to stable and safe shelter
- Purpose
- Engaging in meaningful activities in your daily life
- Stable employment
- Education
- Family activities
- Hobbies
- Volunteer work
- Learning how to support those meaningful activities and be an active participant in society
- Independence
- Income
- Other support resources
- Engaging in meaningful activities in your daily life
- Community
- Fostering healthy, mutually supportive relationships and social networks
- Support
- Friendship
- Guidance
- Love
- Hope
- Fostering healthy, mutually supportive relationships and social networks
When you are distressed by your substance use disorder (SUD) and other mental health disorders, it can be difficult to function in your daily life. Your ability to function and maintain healthy relationships, stable employment, and/or school performance is impaired. Thus, it may be difficult to imagine how finding stable employment can play a beneficial role in your long-term recovery. Increasing your understanding of whole-person healing can give you insight into the way stable employment can support your recovery.
The Importance of Stable Employment in Recovery
According to the Journal of Addictive Diseases, unemployment is a chronic challenge that frequently co-occurs with SUD. As noted by the Partnerships to End Addiction, 17% of unemployed people in the United States have SUD. The lack of stable employment with SUD highlights the significant impact substance use can have on your life. Moreover, a lack of stable employment is one of several factors that can further hinder your ability to recover. An article from Healthcare points out that the relationship between unemployment and health problems has been a subject of research for decades.
The question has often been raised if unemployment and mental health disorders share a causal relationship. In reality, mental and emotional distress share a bidirectional relationship with a lack of stable employment. A lack of stable employment increases your risk for mental health disorders. On the one hand, the loss of income increases your psychological distress. Increased psychological distress can lead to worse mental and physical health outcomes, including unhealthy coping strategies like substance use. However, on the other hand, challenges with your mental health can be a risk factor for poor functioning in your daily life.
When you are deeply distressed by SUD and other mental health disorders, you may find it more difficult to maintain or seek stable employment. Some of the psychological difficulties that can contribute to difficulties with stable employment include:
- Decreased productivity
- Taking sick leave more frequently
- Reduced educational and stable employment opportunities
- Increased risk for SUD
- Co-occurring mental health disorders
Moreover, difficulties with co-occurring disorders, location, poor support resources, and socio-economic factors can hinder your ability to recover. As SAMHSA states in their Evidence-Based Resource Guide Series, sustained recovery has a significant correlation with finding a meaningful and purposeful work-life balance. Whether paid or voluntary, stable employment provides a meaningful environment in which you can produce things of value for yourself and others. The economic and non-economic benefits of stable employment include:
- Increased resources and access to needs and wants through a stable income
- Structure through the routine of work
- Increased feelings of self-efficacy
- Opportunities for socialization and social connection with co-workers
- Improved sense of value as a productive member of society
In addition, the benefits of stable employment can translate to decreased SUD-related behavioral challenges and consequences. Some of the positive outcomes that come from investing in stable employment include:
- You are more likely to abstain from using substances
- Less likely to experience multiple relapses
- You are less likely to engage in criminal activity spurred on by SUD
- Reduced parole violations
- Increased ability to transition from treatment to your life in your community
- Learning and or improving skills for independence
- Structure
- Socialization
- Responsibilities
- Learning and or improving skills for independence
- Improved quality of life
Therefore, stable employment can be incredibly impactful in providing opportunities for financial stability, independence, and sustained recovery. Stable employment not only decreases your risk for relapse but can improve other areas of your life as well. Your improved quality of life from stable employment can be found in increased financial security and sobriety, but also in its support of your overall well-being.
Supporting Well-Being Through Stable Employment
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes, your well-being in a work setting is the ability to address stressors, be productive, and recognize your potential. When your well-being is at the core of the work you do in every part of your life, you support your physical and psychological wellness for the improved quality of your life. Through stable employment, the creation of that work-life balance in the process of recovery can be particularly valuable to whole-person healing.
As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) states, work can have a significant impact on your physical and mental well-being in both good and bad ways. Thus, finding improved physical and psychological well-being is not only found in seeking stable employment but also in building that important work-life balance.
Without balance in your work life, there is an increased risk for stressors that impair your mental, emotional, and physical health. Therefore, supported stable employment with employers that are committed to understanding your individual needs and supporting your success is vital. Some of the ways you can find individualized recovery support in stable employment include:
- Addressing transportation issues
- Building specific job skills
- Relapse prevention tools
- Recognizing signs of relapse
- Offering strategies for warning signs
- Onsite support
- Time off for treatment
- Addressing ways to deal with interpersonal issues
- Education and career development resources
Access to supported, high-quality, stable employment can be a source of profound happiness and fulfillment throughout your life. With the support of employers, stable employment can offer continued whole-person support beyond your time in treatment. Listed below are some of the ways participating in supported stable employment can support your well-being and sustained recovery:
- Protection from harm
- Safety and security
- Employers protect you from physical and psychological harm
- Injuries
- Illnesses
- Long work hours
- Bullying
- Discrimination
- Harassment
- Normalizes and supports mental health
- Ensuring access to affordable mental health services
- Telehealth
- On-site support
- Off-site after-hours support
- Encouraging time off for well-being
- Ensuring access to affordable mental health services
- Your employers provide financial and future job security
- Employers protect you from physical and psychological harm
- Safety and security
- Connection and community
- Fosters positive social interactions and relationships between individuals in the workplace
- Supports the need for social support and belonging
- Social support
- The relationships and networks you form from physical and psychological support
- Can help mitigate feelings of loneliness and isolation
- The relationships and networks you form from physical and psychological support
- Belonging
- The feeling that you have been accepted as a member of a group
- Social support
- Work-life balance
- Building autonomy and flexibility are essential tools to integrate the demands of work and life
- Autonomy is how much control you have over when, where, and how you do your work
- Employers can support work-life balance by giving you more control over multiple aspects of your work
- The process needed to accomplish projects
- Scheduling and location
- Remote and hybrid work arrangements
- Employers can support work-life balance by giving you more control over multiple aspects of your work
- Flexibility is your ability to work when and where it is best for your well-being
- Provide flexible start and end times for workdays
- No lost wage penalty when personal needs, family needs, or emergencies arise
- Increased access to paid leave time
- Sick leave
- Family and medical leave
- Time off
- Autonomy is how much control you have over when, where, and how you do your work
- Building autonomy and flexibility are essential tools to integrate the demands of work and life
- Mattering at work
- Knowing you and your work matters at work can help decrease stress and the risk of depression
- Essential elements for mattering at work include dignity and meaning
- Dignity is the sense of being respected and valued at work
- Meaning encourages your sense of purpose and the significance of your work
- Opportunity for growth
- Increases optimism about your abilities and enthusiasm about what you can contribute
- Essential needs include learning and a sense of accomplishment
- Learning is the opportunity to gain new skills and knowledge for growth and development
- Feeling a sense of accomplishment comes from meeting your goals and realizing your work has an impact
Finding support in stable employment is a motivator for sustained recovery as you recognize your self-worth. You and your work are valuable to you, your peers, your community, and society as a whole. However, it can be difficult to recognize how supported stable employment can be a positive force in your life when SUD has had such a grip on your life. SUD comes with unhealthy thinking patterns that tell you that you are less than or not worth the effort.
In reality, you are worthy of healing and the opportunity to build a meaningful and purposeful life. Looking at the ways unstable employment can and has harmed your life can provide insight into the value of addressing your needs as a whole person.
How Underemployment and Unemployment Harms Well-Being
You now have some understanding of the bidirectional relationship a lack of stable employment can have on your psychological well-being. Many people experience more stress when money is tight because it impacts many other areas of life. A lack of stable employment can lead to housing and food insecurity, relationship conflicts, loss of custody for parents, and many other distressing factors. Unfortunately, underemployment and unemployment are common features of many people’s lives. Moreover, if you grew up in poverty or a low-income household with little or no access to support resources, you may be so accustomed to these experiences that it can be difficult to recognize the detriment they have had on your life.
In fact, the distress of poverty and low income is often a risk factor for the development of SUD and other mental health disorders. As noted in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, there have been deaths of dispairs born out of underemployment, unemployment, and poor work lives from unsupported and low-quality workplaces. These deaths of dispairs have led to a wide variety of physical and psychological concerns for individual and collective well-being in society. Listed below are some of the ways lack of supported and stable employment can contribute to poor health outcomes:
- Lack of skill development
- Decreased access to employment opportunities
- Impeded financial and educational resources for upward mobility
- Hopelessness and distress
- Substance misuse and SUD
- Alcohol consumption
- Drug use
- Suicidal ideation
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Low self-esteem
- Feelings of worthlessness
- Somatic aches and pains
- Chronic health issues
Much like the feelings associated with SUD difficulties, lack of stable employment can leave you feeling useless. You find it difficult to find value in yourself, which can further hinder your belief in your ability to heal and experience sustained recovery. Moreover, stigma among other factors can contribute to challenges in finding stable employment on your own. Therefore, looking at barriers to stable employment highlights the importance of support networks and the resource tools treatment can provide to help you build a fulfilling life in long-term recovery.
Barriers to Employment
According to the HHS and the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Program Executives (CAADPE), prior to and after treatment, there are a variety of challenges to obtaining and maintaining stable employment. Listed below are some of the challenges and barriers to stable employment before and after SUD treatment:
- Limited education
- Lack of job skills
- Vocational and technical training
- Digital literacy
- Low work experience
- Poor interviewing skills
- Lack of job opportunities
- Location
- Low wages
- Difficulties with mental and physical health
- Criminal justice system history
- Stigma against employing individuals with criminal records
- Lack of work schedule flexibility for court dates and probation requirements
- Gaps in employment history
- Lack of basic needs
- Transportation/ driver’s license
- Housing
- Childcare
- Computer/technology
- SUD Stigma
- Treatment needs
- Need more access to recovery support services
- Relapse prevention
- Scheduling to accommodate residential and outpatient treatment
- Need more access to recovery support services
Looking at the barriers and harm caused by unstable employment and the lack of supportive workplaces is understandably distressing. However, through supportive treatment programs, you have access to support people, tools, and resources to effect positive change in your life with stable employment.
Finding Support for Stable Employment at Rancho Recovery
At Rancho Recovery, fostering your long-term recovery starts with personalized care. Through personalized support, we are able to address your specific needs to build a fulfilling life. With our comprehensive and evidence-based practices, you can find stability in a customized treatment program that gives you the structure you need to thrive. No matter where you are in your recovery journey, there is a place for you to find the tools you need for sobriety and other parts of your life.
Our commitment to holistic, whole-person healing at Rancho Recovery means we are here for you during and beyond your time in treatment. With a deeply interconnected and active recovery community, you can continue to find support through aftercare and alumni services. Whether you need support finding stable employment during or after treatment, we are here to help you navigate those challenges and barriers to finding work that supports your independence, uncovers or rediscovers your self-worth, and supports your lifelong recovery. Through our commitment to your needs and wants as a whole person, you are worthy of quality work and a fulfilling life.
Lack of employment and income instability can impact your access to basic needs like housing and food, which increases distress and the risk for unhealthy coping strategies like substance use. Thus, stable employment in recovery can be a valuable tool for reducing distress. Moreover, gaining stable employment after treatment can further support an increase in your self-esteem and self-worth. Through supportive, high-quality employment, you can find meaning and purpose in your work that reminds you that you are valued and worthy of a fulfilling life. Through comprehensive and evidence-based practices, you can find the specific tools and resources you need for lifelong recovery. Call Rancho Recovery at (877) 484-1447 to learn how stable employment can support your long-term wellness.