“Welcoming” is how Perez described rehab in an environment that provides first responder peer support. “You no longer feel alone … as a burden … or convinced ‘this is only happening to me.’ You have a peer who can talk to you, validate your emotions, and give you the facts: that now you have a PTSD-and-addicted brain.”
The main therapeutic difference that peer support makes is “a sense of community.” Here is how Perez described it:
“We don’t want to feel alone. The way you bond is to vulnerably talk about that shameful, hurtful thing that you’ve been carrying, and now you’re vulnerably sharing it with a group of peers who can support you because they understand and have been in the same place.”
This sense of connection and community, according to the research, can improve recovery outcomes.