Addiction and Relationships by Calvin Smith, MA, LPC

Addiction and Relationships:

Drugs can alter the way you think. If you are using drugs and in a relationship you may be susceptible to a deviation in your perception of situations and mis-interpretation of interactions. These can be influenced by drug usage.

While the approach I am discussing today may not be a fail safe way to prevent miscommunication and other challenges influenced by drug usage, it may give you an approach towards managing your relationship's development more effectively and help to stabilize your experiences within your relationship.

As you are planning to have a stable life that you can share with another it is important to understand how addiction affects you.

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More importantly to have a plan of action for managing yourself so that you can be the most responsible person to your partner. This said, now lets explore what criteria mayhelp a person faced with addiction develop an integrated approach towards developing a relationship and managing an addiction recovery process.

Rule 1. Decide that relationships are a healthy part of your recovery process. Some professionals would advise to abstain from relationships while recovering from drug addiction but I believe relationships are a strength that can help a person to be more successful in their recovery process.  That is.if thier support system is "pro recovery" process.

Here are some objectives that I believe can help a person stabilize there recovery process.

Addiction side:
Objectives to achieve as criteria for optimum results in a relationship experience: the person should demonstrate..

1. Clean and sober as identified through a drug test.
2. They are Managing recovery depicted by a routine that empowers and reinforces their recovery process. 
3. Accountable to peer group.
4. Relapse prevention plan
>Coping skills, triggers , support system, emergency contacts

On the Relationship Side:
1. Understand your thoughts about relationship. 
2. Explore to Understand how you relate to your partner 
3. Evaluating and developing Competency in reading emotions, context, and situations in the relationship 
4.  Evaluating and developing Competency in using phrases in appropriately addressing context and  emotions for healthy exchanges.
5.Evaluating and developing  Competency in actions for managing the emotional exchanges and situations in context.
6. Development of Partner for having a functional plan for supporting and reinforcing the recovery process of the recovering partner.
7. The healthy partner would also need to establish a Support system, understanding  healthy mindsets for supporting the recovery process, recognizing the disease (craving mentality), emergency plans of action, id triggers and coping skills of partner tobe able to competently support them.

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