The recovery community, your friends, family, co-workers and most of all, the relationship with yourself, all play a significant role in your sobriety success…
So there you are, living in a halfway house or some other type of sober living home, and you come to learn that there may be a great deal of work needed to rebuild your relationships. This reality comes as a big disappointment. You may even feel a great deal of resentment because of it. After all, you’re trying your best but family and friends do not seem to appreciate this. Such negative thinking may be used as an excuse to relapse and return to former destructive behavior. You may even try to blame loved ones for this development.
“Don’t they care that I’m sober now? Aren’t they proud of me for going through drug rehab, and then choosing to go to a halfway house (or some type of transitional sober housing) afterwards rather than straight home?”
It is vital that people who are new to recovery have realistic expectations about their relationships. Years of hurt and disappointment cannot be put right overnight. The newly sober person has to work to regain any lost trust. The best way they can do this is by staying sober and building a good life in recovery. They need to accept that they have caused pain and be willing to give these people the space and time to heal.
An extremely important aspect to building healthy relationships in sobriety is to firmly establish a relationship with yourself as a recovering person. There really is no set timetable to accomplish this, but you need to be sure that you take all the time that you need to know yourself first.
Below are some tips to building and maintaining healthy relationships in sobriety:
• Make recovery your top priority
• Enjoy time alone and with others
• Take it slow and easy
• Be able to learn from conflict
• Keep your expectations realistic
• Know when enough is enough. If someone is still using or is unsupportive of your recovery, be selfish and put your sobriety first. You may have to walk away.
• Don’t get bogged down by guilt over pain you have caused
• Have empathy for yourself and others
Building and maintaining healthy relationships can be a key to your addiction recovery. Studies have shown that relapse rates increase when people are lonely and don’t have healthy friendships in their lives. For help with sober living and addiction recovery, please contact New Lyfe Solutions at (844) 463-9593.
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