It’s that time of year again: time to go back to school – and if you’re in recovery from an alcohol or substance use disorder, there are simple steps you can take to ensure your stay on track and reduce the risk of relapse.
The first thing to remember is that you’re not alone. There are a substantial number of college and high school age people in recovery, and more with an alcohol or substance use disorder (AUD/SUD). While most of our programs are for adults, we include high school students in this article, and the data below, because we offer programs for adolescents at select locations. In addition, since the collection of this data, the older teens have become young adults:
Youth/Teens (12-17)
- SUD: 1.8 million
- AUD: 657,000
College Age (18-25)
- SUD: 9.6 million
- AUD: 5.6 million
Received Treatment for SUD or AUD
- SUD:
- 12-17: 1.2 million
- 18-25: 1.16 million
- AUD:
- 12-17: 800,000
- 18-25: 1.4 million
Those are the most recent facts and figures on addiction among high school and college age people, published in the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2022 NSDUH). For a more in-depth look at addiction and recovery statistics for teens and college students – as well as a list of 65 colleges and universities with collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) approved by the Association of Recovery in Higher Education – please visit the blog section of our website and read our back-to-school article from 2023:
Heading Back to School: Top Tips to Thrive in Recovery
We’ll offer our top five tips for 2024 below, but first, we’ll clarify what we mean by the basics.
Covering Your Basics: Back-to-School Recovery Essentials
These are things that form the foundation of a healthy life, whether you’re in recovery or not, and improve your overall chances of health and wellbeing if you are in recovery. The basics are:
1. Healthy eating.
- Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Don’t skip meals.
- Eat plenty of veggies, fresh fruits, and whole grains.
- Reduce processed foods, sugary snacks, and sugary beverages.
2. Daily activity.
- Avoid being sedentary all day every day. In marathon study sessions, take breaks. Stand up, walk around, shake it off.
- Exercise is great for overall health, but also improves cognitive function and reduces stress, which will both help you succeed at school. Build workout or gym time into your schedule.
- If you’re not the workout type, take walks.
3. Healthy sleep habits.
- Okay, granted: all-nighters studying, talking, or engaging in shenanigans are cultural norms for college students.
- Accepting that as a given, try to avoid too much of that.
- The negative effects of sleep deprivation are cumulative. One or two nights here and there and you’ll have tough days the next day with no long-term consequences. However, weeks of poor sleep will affect your overall mood, cognitive performance, stress levels – and increase your likelihood of relapse.
Those are the basics: now let’s move on to what you need to think about once you understand that the three points above are your foundation.
Our Top Five Tips for Managing Recovery When You Go Back to School
Here are five good tips to help stay on track with your recovery when you return to school:
1. Establish your recovery network ahead of time.
- If you go to 12-step meetings or other community/peer support meetings, plan now. Get online, find the schedules, and put meetings on your calendar.
- If you have hobbies or activities that support your recovery, do the same. Get online and find out where, when, and how you can keep doing the things that promote recovery. Then put hobby and activity time on your calendar.
2. Stay connected to your core support network.
- If you’re close with your immediate family, plan phone or video chat check-ins.
- Same with your friends: stay engaged with your group chats, and schedule video meet-ups to see happy faces when you need that extra boost.
3. Find professional support.
- Research the available resources at your school. They may offer complementary or reduced-rate mental health or substance use counseling.
- If your school resources are not viable, then seek professional support off-campus. Sites such as the American Psychological Association maintain helpful therapist finders like this one.
4. Manage stress.
- Make sure you find a way to keep doing whatever works to manage stress at home or when you’re not at school.
- If you don’t have a stress management plan, reach out to people you trust to help build one.
- Consider things like mindfulness, yoga, and meditation.
- Attending to the basics we mention above will give you a solid stress-management foundation.
5. Be mindful of your schedule.
- We understand that ambition may result in an eagerness to finish school as quickly as possible, which often means taking on extra classes, assistant/volunteer/work for favorite professors, and building up an impressive extracurricular resume. However, be careful: all that can increase stress and pressure, derail your mental health, and increase likelihood of relapse.
- Create a schedule that balances everything that matters most: recovery, classes, study time, exercise/activity, healthy eating, social connection, and sleep.
- When you make your schedule, go through it day-by-day for a reality check. Ask yourself not only if it’s doable, but if it promotes a healthy recovery lifestyle. If it doesn’t, reassess your schedule until you’re satisfied that it will work for you.
Follow those tips, and you’ll increase your chances of maintaining your recovery and having an outstanding Fall/Winter semester.
Finding Help: Relapse Prevention Resources
Please refer to these organizations and publications to learn more about relapse and relapse prevention:
Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE):
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):
The National Institute on Drug Abuse:
The Veterans Administration (VA):
Peer-Reviewed Research:
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