For those who are in recovery, managing intimate relationships can be very difficult. A loss of trust, codependency, and poor communication can take their toll in relationship recovery. If you are in recovery for an addiction, regaining your partner’s trust can be extremely challenging. There is a difficult balance between working to regain trust and respecting your partner’s emotions. Rapid relationship recovery often doesn’t exist. Therefore, patience is an extremely important asset in your recovery, as well as the recovery of your relationship with your partner.
The urgency to regain trust is understandable. When your partner is angry, it can bring back negative memories of times before maintaining abstinence. It can be extremely difficult to face old feelings of guilt that resurface as a result of your partner’s responses. However, if you look at this as an opportunity, rather than a burden, you can improve your relationship more than you would have ever thought possible. This vulnerable time can increase the level of intimacy in your relationship, and improve on your communication in the long-run. Although it’s not fun at all to deal with painful, current feelings associated with facing your angry partner, in time, this will increase your level of trust.
Before participating in personal addiction recovery treatment, many relationships have difficulties in their communication. Personal perspectives end up taking priority over the emotion behind what is being said. However, these emotions are the foundations of intimacy. To be able to hold back your initial reaction, so that you listen to what your partner is communicating will be the biggest step you take in your relationship recovery. Thus, hearing the emotion and asking what you can do to help is extremely important. Your partner will believe that you are interested and listening, and with consistency, the amount of intimacy will improve as a result.
