The Role Of Boundaries Before And During Drug Recovery
If you’re struggling with addiction, it’s likely you feel like you’re working through your troubles alone. The loneliness you feel can be compounded if others, especially loved one, start saying things like, “I don’t want to be around you while you’re using,” or they respond to you with seemingly no emotion. Although their behavior has changed, it doesn’t mean they don’t care. They’re likely setting boundaries so they can care of themselves as well as you.
Why Others Are Setting Boundaries In Your Relationship
Setting boundaries is necessary for any healthy relationship. When addiction is involved, boundaries are even more important. Without boundaries, people often say or do things they don’t mean or sacrifice who they are to be there for someone else. It can get to a point where they’re not taking care of their own basic needs anymore.
When you’re dealing with your own addiction problems, it can be difficult to know when others are reaching their breaking points. One day, seemingly out of nowhere, they may just start acting differently. They may stop spending time with you, stop making plans with you, or start laying down ultimatums in order to get your behavior to change. You may see that behavior as selfish. In fact, their setting boundaries for your relationship can actually help you in the long run.
How The Boundaries Others Set Can Play Into Your Addiction Recovery
If people continue to let you behave as you want to, there is going to be no consequences for your actions, even the ones that could ruin your life. Although law enforcement could step in, your addiction troubles may not be extreme enough to get the courts involved.
The moment people start setting boundaries in your relationship, you’ll begin to see the consequences for your continued actions. The repercussions may not seem like much at first. You might miss a few social events or even a party of some kind because of your drug addiction. In extreme cases, continued use could result in severed relationships with family, friends, and other loved ones.
It can be easy to blame others for the possible broken relationship, however their intent isn’t to leave you. They have to set these boundaries to make sure that their lives are as healthy as possible. Frequently, the same people who make these boundaries want to be there to help you move away from your addiction troubles. Instead of seeing the set boundaries as others leaving you behind, you can use the consequences involved in your continued drug use as a catalyst to start your addiction treatment.
How Setting Boundaries During Your Own Drug Recovery Can Help You
If you decide to start your addiction treatment, you may find it difficult to deal with your own troubles and those of others at the same time. That’s to be expected. Going through drug recovery means that you’ll facing painful past experiences and changing your entire way of thinking along the way. Sometimes people can get in the way, even if they mean well.
Setting boundaries for your drug recovery is very important. You need time to be able to adjust to life without addiction while also learning and expanding who you are. Part of that is going to be building and maintaining healthy relationships with others, but you have to be ready for it.
When you decide to let loved ones into the treatment process, you need to push for healthy relationships. You want to build relationships where:
- Thoughts and feelings are easily shared
- Personal beliefs and thoughts are accepted, even if they’re not agreed upon
- Everyone takes responsibility for the things he or she says or does
- Individuals take time and effort to define who they are
- Everyone is respected
If some of these factors are left out, a relationship can turn into one that’s unhealthy for everyone involved. You can help maintain healthy relationships with others by setting limits, being assertive about the boundaries you set, and respecting the boundaries that other people set. If mutual respect in points of view and boundaries are maintained, it’s going to be easier to build lasting, healthy relationships.
Despite your want for mutual respect, someone could try to tear through your boundaries anyway, perhaps unintentionally. If that happens, you have to be ready to dish out the consequences. That’s why it’s important to build these relationships when you’re ready. If you’re not, it can be easy to be swayed by pressure from others.
Building Healthy Relationships Starts With Building A Healthy Version Of You
In order for you to create healthy relationships and boundaries, you need to be able to live a healthy life of your own. You can’t maintain healthy relationships as long as you stay addicted to drugs or alcohol. Addiction treatment can help you work through the personal issues you had with your drug use and teach you how to build habits that are actually good for you.
Treatment centers are designed to help people struggling with addiction handle the transition to life without substance abuse. There are going to be medical professionals and therapists on site every day to ensure that you’re getting the care and education that’s going to help you succeed in the future. Some treatment centers offer both traditional and holistic approaches to therapy, both of which can help you learn about who you are, how to cope under pressure, and how to deal with pressures and triggers when they arise. Recovery can be daunting process, but it can be easier to go through at an addiction treatment center.
Going through addiction treatment can also help you learn how to build good relationships based on mutual respect. People are already going to have boundaries for you. In treatment, you’ll learn how to deal with those boundaries appropriately and how to create some of your own. With their help, you can built the lifestyle and relationships you need.