Addiction and substance abuse can have a disastrous effect on a relationship. In this article, we will discuss how these issues can affect your relationship and what you can do to protect your partner from the harm they can cause. This includes understanding how addiction and substance abuse affect relationships, enabling behaviors, and poor limit-setting. In addition, we will explore ways to encourage your partner to seek help for their addiction.

Addiction and substance abuse negatively impact relationships

When an addict is using alcohol or drugs, they aren't only taking their lives into their own hands, but also damaging their relationships with the people around them. Addicts engage in dangerous or reckless behaviors, including driving drunk, binge drinking, and lateness. These changes make it more difficult to communicate effectively with other people, and they may even become less trustworthy. When you're dealing with a family member or friend suffering from addiction, it is important to recognize that these changes will negatively impact your relationship.

Despite the fact that some substances can be prescribed by medical professionals, most addicts are mistreated and suffer from a lack of trust. They may hide their drug use and take advantage of their partners and families. This is not only hurtful for the addict, but it may also make their partner feel unloved and disrespected. Sadly, the addicted partner may not realize that the drug or alcohol addiction has more powerful effects than honesty and integrity, which can ultimately lead to a breakdown in the relationship.

Enabling behaviors

Enabling behaviors in relationships are common and often a part of codependency. Enabling behaviors occur when a person over-relies on another person to meet all of his or her needs. This behavior may be an attempt to cope with the emotional pain a person feels and to avoid the consequences of being around someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. These behaviors can be harmful and even dangerous.

The most important thing to understand about enabling behaviors is that they are often motivated by good intentions. While these actions may seem innocent enough, they almost always lead to negative consequences. The person who is enabling needs support to cope with the negative effects of being around an addict. If they are suffering from addiction, enabling behaviors may be the last thing they need. If enabling behaviors are common in your relationship, you should recognize and confront them immediately.

Poor limit-setting

In addition to identifying personal values, recovering addicts must learn to listen to their bodies and establish personal boundaries. When someone doesn't respect these boundaries, it's up to them to stand up for themselves. Fortunately, there are many parenting techniques for avoiding poor limit-setting when dealing with substance abuse. Listed below are some of the most common ones:

Encouraging partners to seek help

When a partner begins abusing alcohol or drugs, it may be a good time to try to fix the relationship. While it is easy to hope that the problems will just go away, the reality is that these behaviors have consequences and can affect your relationship in more ways than you might think. As a concerned family member, it is important to understand what to expect from your partner and help them identify the problems.

Most partners in a relationship with a substance abuser are unhappy. Not only does the substance abuser take away time from the relationship, but it also creates emotional distance. This leads to more fights and greater emotional distance. Unfortunately, drug abuse can even lead to further problems. In such a situation, it can be even more difficult to heal from the emotional damage that is caused by substance abuse.

Signs of addiction

Signs of addiction in relationships are common among codependent partners. They begin to love the wrong person for the sake of being with them and do not want to be alone. They do not want to face the problems that come with being alone, so they choose to remain in a dangerous relationship. Addiction is a relapsing condition, and a partner in such a relationship should be separated from the other person.

The person in such a relationship will overcommit to things, find a million new projects to occupy their time, and will genuinely feel physically ill when trying to walk away from the relationship. Their primary motivation for overcommitting is denial. By staying busy, they can avoid facing their own fears and worries. This may seem strange, but it is a sign of addiction in relationships. If you notice one or more of these signs, seek treatment as soon as possible.