Marriage and Addiction: Is Your Marriage Doomed?
By: A Forever Recovery
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Marriage and Addiction: Is Your Marriage Doomed?
Marriage and addiction is an awful problem to have to go through. Living with a drug addict is something that is almost unbearable with any family member. There are thousands of families that struggle to make ends meet, all because of addiction. Furthermore, it’s hard to keep families together in America because of drug or alcohol addiction. When a marriage is affected by addiction, each person will have to choose to either work towards a life free from the addiction or call it quits. Deciding which is a challenging choice for anyone. However, marriage becomes rocky within months after a person begins to battle addiction.
Determining if Your Spouse is Addicted to Drugs
- Becoming secretive about their bank accounts and money they are spending
- Changes in their mood that has no explanation
- Unexplained depression, anxiety or suicidal tendencies
- Unusual sleeping habits such as sleeping abnormally long or hardly sleeping at all
- Lying about where they are going, who they are with or why they are sick
- Differences in how they look. Rapid weight loss, rapid weight gain, sores appearing on their skin with no understanding why they are there, tooth loss, etc.
- Losing a job, quitting school, or lack of motivation about life goals
Everyone reacts to addiction differently. Each person suffers a unique set of consequences. However, the above list is an example of the most common signs.
There are dozens of different signs to look for if you are concerned that your spouse is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Being concerned about this is not something to make you doubt yourself. You should commend yourself for caring enough to worry about your loved one, and the marriage and addiction.
Marriage and Addiction: Ways to Overcome it Together
After months of addiction treatment, a long-term drug or alcohol addict may come home to what is now more or less your world. These feelings can cause conflicts in the home, but there are ways to making this transition smooth. Divorce should always be your last option. There are several successful approaches to helping you and your loved one. There are ways to overcome their addiction and the stresses that it brings into a family’s life.
Marriage Counseling
Marriage counseling is an opportunity to communicate one-on-one and talk about what can help improve your marriage. Also, marriage counseling will help you better understand the addiction. It will inform you of how it is affecting your spouse mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Giving Each Other the Moral Support You Need
Giving moral support works both ways. Each person in the marriage must learn to talk to one another and help each other, no matter the situation. Whether you or your spouse needs support for handling any situation, you should always give support for a successful, lasting marriage.
Group Therapy
There are group therapy sessions now that let couples come together to talk about the addiction that is disrupting their life. Also, every couple will learn ways to overcome the addiction together. Group therapy is especially beneficial in the first stages of addiction recovery. A recovering addict needs people that care about the present when they are going through something like therapy. You both will gain insight about sobriety and what other couples are doing to keep their marriages together in this difficult time.
Choosing to work with your spouse during their addiction recovery is a choice that proves you are committed and dedicated to making your marriage work. Stick with the programs, and soon you will see your relationship benefit drastically.
Treatment Early On in Addiction
Helping your spouse go through addiction treatment is a loving choice that you should consider if, in fact, he or she is struggling with addiction. Choosing a program is fairly straightforward, and if you contact our addiction treatment counselors, they will give you guidance for the programs that will work for your loved one so that he or she will recover from their addiction sooner. They will also help you step by step through the struggles of marriage and addiction so that you better understand everything you are going through for added success.