It is essential to establish clear boundaries and hold the addict accountable. By refusing to enable destructive behavior, you can encourage them to seek help and take responsibility for their recovery. Express your feelings and concerns openly loving an addict while actively listening to your partner. Avoid blaming or shaming each other and focus on finding solutions together.
When Someone You Love is an Addict.
Try to redirect their minds to something else they love doing or eating. For example, they could love ice cream, pizza, or a calming technique for their recovery process you developed or was prescribed by a professional. It does not have to affect your relationship with them yet even though their behavior may get to you in a negative way.
- Seeking professional support while showing love can lead to powerful healing for all involved, fostering a brighter future together.
- To learn more about how you can your family can start the road to recovery, please contact us today.
- I just need some advice and an outside perspective from those that understand how it is to be with a recovering addict.
- One of the ways to manage an addiction or substance abuse with a loved one is getting help from a professional.
- You’re absolutely right that love alone can’t cure addiction.
- Without boundaries, there is a risk of becoming overly involved in their struggles, which can lead to emotional burnout, resentment, and a breakdown in the relationship.
Supporting Your Partner in Recovery
- I learned to see when I was being manipulated and to see my own patterns, enabling or otherwise.
- You have to also avoid living in the fantasy world that the addict tries to create.
- Shielding yourself from enabling behaviors is crucial in maintaining your own well-being while navigating the complexities of loving an addict.
- If you love an addict, you may find yourself in a seemingly never-ending cycle of these agonizing decisions.
Most do this because they can and because of the comfort and an enabling environment that shields them from seeing the need to address the problem. For those reading this who do not believe they enable and for the extreme few who do not, there is another side that makes setting boundaries effective whether enabling exists or not. Most people with substance use and mental disorders act out to inflict pain and heartache on the very people they believe are the cause of their problems. Setting boundaries removes this ability away from the intended patient. As long as your loved one thinks or feels they can hurt or control you, they will. Families, people with an addiction, alcoholics, and those with mental disorders are very similar.
Caring about an addicted person can feel like a nightmare.
Talk to friends, marijuana addiction people and family members in recovery who have the lived experience of what you’re going through, and seek the help of addiction specialists. Effective communication and setting healthy boundaries are crucial in maintaining a healthy relationship. Establishing clear and respectful boundaries helps protect both partners’ well-being and fosters an environment of safety and trust.
- Reframing the situation as an important lesson (although, maybe not a welcome one) can help you be more at peace with it.
- Filling our hearts with compassion for ourselves can strengthen our relationships.
- For example, you might decide to tell the addict in your life that you will no longer listen to them complain about their lives.
What are some important considerations when dating a former drug addict?
To keep being in a relationship with an addict and make it work, you need to be positive about the outcomes. Don’t get this wrong, it may not be that easy especially if you’ve never experienced it before. Your resilience and happiness are important and our team and resources can help you achieve this. A 17-week program that meets live on Zoom and offers support, guidance, and actionable strategies to break free from codependency.
There are mental health risks for both partners, subtle and overt physical scares, and the need to address the substance use disorder head-on. The road ahead may be difficult, but it’s not impossible to rebuild the romantic relationship you once had. Taking small steps toward recovery can restore hope and empower the addict to reclaim their life from addiction.
