From the Research: Self-Care in Addiction Recovery
Self-care has become one of those phrases that’s been stretched so thin it barely means anything anymore. Face masks, bubble baths, a decent cup of coffee — sure, whatever. None of that is what the research is actually talking about when it comes to self-care in recovery. In recovery, “self-care” is closer to infrastructure than indulgence. It’s the stuff that holds a day together so a craving doesn’t have a quiet, empty room to show up in.
What the researchers looked at
A 2025 study in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing examined how people in recovery engage with self-care practices across the first year of sobriety and beyond. The researchers looked at the full spectrum — sleep, nutrition, movement, stress management, social connection, spiritual or reflective practice, and health-care engagement — and asked which of those actually tracked with recovery stability over time.
What they found
A few things stood out. First, self-care in recovery is rarely a solo project. The people who sustained their practices longest tended to have someone — a coach, a sponsor, a peer, a partner — who helped them make it concrete. Second, the individual categories matter less than the consistency across them. It’s not about whether you went to the gym on Tuesday; it’s about whether you have a recognizable rhythm at all. And third, the researchers flagged the same barrier I hear from almost every client: in active use, the body and the mind get used to dysregulation. Returning to a regulated baseline takes time, repetition, and often some structured help.
The phrase the authors keep coming back to is “intentional practice.” Self-care, in the recovery context, is something you learn to do on purpose, even on the days you don’t feel like it — especially on the days you don’t feel like it. That’s a real shift from how most of us were raised to think about “taking care of ourselves.”
Why this matters for families
If your loved one is in early recovery and their days look a little rigid — set bedtimes, set meals, a list on the fridge, the same walk every morning — that’s not a symptom. That’s the work. Families sometimes read that structure as avoidance of real life, when in reality it’s the scaffolding that’s holding real life up. One of the most supportive things you can do is normalize it, protect it from interruption when you can, and — if you have the bandwidth — join it. Shared structure beats solo structure almost every time.
Key Takeaways
Self-care in recovery is a learned practice, not a personality trait — it has to be built, usually with help.
Consistency across domains (sleep, food, movement, connection) matters more than perfection in any one area.
Recovery literally requires the nervous system to relearn regulation, and that takes months, not days.
Having one other person involved in your self-care plan dramatically increases the chance it holds.
Families can support recovery most by protecting a loved one’s structure instead of disrupting it.
Source: Folgueiras-Vila, Martorell-Poveda, Ortega-Sanz, et al. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (2025). Read the full study →