Dealing with addiction can take a drastic toll on your everyday life. It also can affect the lives of those who are close to you. Ensuring that you are aware of the impact your addiction can have on others can help you manage these aspects in your relationships. These impacts do not always have to be negative. With your acknowledgment, you can use your recovery to make a positive impact on the people in your life.
Impacts on Relationships
There are various impacts that addiction and the recovery process can have on relationships in your life.
Codependency
You may find that aspects of codependency may occur through the process of addiction. Codependency can enable you or another individual to engage in the use of substances and stray away from your recovery progress.
Family Involvement
If your relationships tend to have negative impacts on the individuals involved, they may withdraw from maintaining a relationship with you. This can be challenging within the family system, especially if your family is your main source of support. If you allow your addiction to negatively impact the life of your family, they may choose to distance themselves from you and your recovery process. This lack of family involvement can negatively influence your treatment success.
Increasing Awareness
The programs offered at Dream Recovery can help you to establish a sense of awareness of the effects of addiction. Understanding how your recovery impacts the lives of others in your surroundings helps you establish mindfulness and appreciation toward your support system.
It is important to ensure you are maintaining a healthy bond with others in your personal relationships and professional relationships. This includes your relationships with your case manager, therapist, and treatment team, along with your family and support system. Being aware of the impacts your actions have on these relationships can help ensure you have a healthy foundation to build on moving forward.
Personal Relationships
Being aware of the impacts your addiction has on your personal relationships can help you maintain healthy boundaries within those relationships. If you find that your recovery process is hindering your relationships with friends, family, or a significant other, assess why this may be occurring. There are often actions we engage in that cause a disruption within our relationships that can be changed.
Discuss these potential impacts within your personal relationships. Ask others how you could improve yourself to keep the relationship strong. See what they need to feel supported. This can give you a clear indication of changes that are within your control to improve the situation and the relationship. As well as improving the overall relationships, it also improves the level of mutual support given, therefore increasing your support through recovery.
Professional Relationships
Through your professional relationships, it is also important to be aware of the impacts of addiction. Many of your professional relationships will be surrounded by the recovery process. Other professional relationships may include your employer, professors, or something outside of the recovery field. Regardless of the specifics, these relationships are impacted by your recovery success. Your boss or professors may be hindered by a relapse. Conversely, your performance at work or school will likely benefit from your recovery success. Your treatment team wishes to watch you succeed.
Every aspect of addiction takes some form of effect on these relationships. Being aware of these potential effects can allow you to appropriately address them, ensuring the relationship stays strong. This is of particular importance for relationships with your employers. Being transparent with them can help ensure you have a stable job through recovery. You may need to regain trust with your employer or provide information through your recovery process to obtain good standing.
Improving Your Communication
There are many ways to improve your communication and awareness of the impacts your recovery has on your relationships. Utilize the following tools to improve these skills.
Utilize Therapy
Therapy is a great way to discuss these potential impacts within your relationships and seek advice for proper ways to handle them. It can be difficult to establish goals that are in your best interest, as well as the best interest of others. Through therapy, you can determine what these goals may be and how they can be achieved.
Rebuild Family Bonds
You may find that your relationships within the family unit have lacked structure or are diminishing after your addiction arises. If this is the case, you may need to rebuild your bonds within the family structure and make reparations with family members. Family is an important aspect of recovery. If these relationships need assistance, improving these bonds is a great way to receive additional support through this process.
Process Your Emotions
When high levels of emotions arise, utilize your coping skills to process your emotions and regulate them. This helps to take away the stress of others through these emotional high points. If you are consistently relying upon your relationships to keep you level-headed, the people around you may feel stressed. To avoid this, practice your skills to manage these emotions on your terms.
The impacts that the cycle of addiction has on your everyday relationships are often overlooked. There are many negative and positive influences that your choices can have on the well-being of others. By improving your awareness of these effects and utilizing skills to minimize the negative effects, you can maintain healthy relationships. This helps you have a stronger support system through your recovery journey. These skills can benefit you throughout the lifelong process of recovery and help you maintain healthy relationships in your life outside of treatment. To learn more about the impacts addiction has on relationships and how you can manage these impacts, reach out to Dream Recovery at (657) 216-7218.