If you have a spouse who sticks with you and supports you throughout your sobriety, it can be a major source of support. But note that repairing your marriage may be a challenge, especially while you’re continuing on your path to recovery. Discover some tips that may make the transition into sobriety easier when you have a husband or wife to consider as well. What happened still matters and affects how you live and feel, but it does not have to control you.
Rebuilding a Relationship after Your Partner Gets Clean and Sober
- Addiction to drugs or alcohol is often experienced by one partner in a marriage.
- It’s important to remember that while the journey may be challenging, you’re not alone.
- It may be difficult to get through a day without using, drinking, or fighting the urge to do so.
- There are probably underlying issues that have not been addressed.
- You can celebrate it with your partner yearly to keep track of the length of their sobriety journey.
- Further, I cannot guarantee the result of that experience will be what you want it to be; sometimes you don’t get “back” the person you thought you lost.
Underdog needs to be encouraged to take on more responsibility, while Top Dog needs to let go of control and stop enabling the addict by being super responsible. The newly sober have their own demons and challenges just staying sober and clean. Taking on family https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and work responsibilities without the help of a drug can be daunting, depending upon the duration of the addiction. While you can get help at the same time, recovery is an individual journey. The underlying cause of addiction is as unique as you are.
The Impact of Alcohol on Trust
Understanding and avoiding triggers have a significant impact on the risk of relapse. Triggers are situations, emotions, or events that can cause a person to drink or participate in harmful alcohol-related behaviors. Understanding and dealing with these triggers is an integral part of staying sober. Both will have to learn how to speak to each other all over again.
Seek support
Patiently work on rebuilding communication, trust, support, respect, and intimacy. If you’ve decided to get sober together, this is an incredible and powerful step to take as a couple. By walking through the recovery process together, you’ll both become stronger and healthier on the other side. Each day of sobriety is a small victory, a stepping stone towards the larger goal of a healed relationship and a healthier life. The process may be slow and fraught with setbacks, but the promise of a restored relationship and the regained sense of self are worth the struggle. Living with someone who has substance use disorder can be difficult, and also create changes in your relationship.
A study published in 2018 found that those with mental illness were twice as likely to report having been involved in an abusive relationship compared to the general population. However, when a period comes when a person has become wholly sober and abstains from alcohol, some partners believe relationship problems will evaporate. The partners are happy to be with each other and behave better than before.
- If the partner living with SUD hasn’t found healthy ways to cope with the trauma or PTSD, then it could begin to affect them in negative ways.
- Rebuilding a marriage damaged by alcoholism isn’t easy.
- Not all relationships are healthy, and not everyone requires an extensive support system to stay motivated in their recovery journey.
It’s probably best to avoid any new romantic relationships in early sobriety so you don’t fall back into old patterns of co-dependency. Your partner may relapse one or more times before marriage changes after sobriety finally achieving long-term sobriety. Most treatment methods for substance use disorder involve the family. That means you will likely play a role in your partner’s treatment.
He’s Sober. Now What? A Spouse’s Guide to Alcoholism Recovery
