- Aug 19
- Recovery
When you have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, it seems like nothing remains untouched by this disease. While personal ramifications affect your physical health and emotional wellbeing, you aren’t the only one impacted by your addiction. Those you’re closest to are also hurt by how drugs or alcohol influence your decisions and behavior.
As you step onto the road of recovery, you may be anxious to reconnect with loved ones, from estranged friends to wounded family members. But it may be difficult to overcome all that’s occurred. While you were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, chances are you deeply hurt someone you loved, let them down or even caused chaos in their life.
Four Tips for Healing Broken Relationships
Today is a new day, and recovery offers you a chance at a fresh start with those you love. There’s no time like the present to build bridges and show them you’ve changed.
Here are some suggestions on how to heal broken relationships impacted by drug or alcohol addiction:
1. Have Realistic Expectations
Years of hurt, problematic communication and deep-seated issues with a loved one cannot be resolved immediately. Even if you sincerely apologize for your past actions, you must accept the reality that restoring a relationship could take more than that. Some friends or family members may not want to talk to you, and that’s their right. They may bring up past wounds every time you see them. Just remember that any step you take toward rebuilding relationships is a victory.
2. Give It Time
Your recovery was not an instantaneous cure. It took time, discipline and dedication. In the same way, it may take time to repair your harmed or damaged relationships. Many people come out of recovery expecting everything to go back to normal with their loved ones. But past hurt and broken trust take time to heal. Let this healing process take its natural course.
3. Practice Bringing Good to Those You Love
In the past, your loved ones may have experienced a great deal of hardship as a result of your drug or alcohol use. To heal these broken relationships, it’s time to turn that pattern around. As a way of offering reparation and peace, strive to bring good. This could include:
- Loving gestures
- Helpful actions and assistance
- Good deeds
- Caring words
- Gifts
4. Listen More, Speak Less
Communication is a two-way street that involves both talking and listening. During your life of addiction, your family and friends may have spent a lot of time watching in misery, unable to speak about how they felt. Now, you may need to let your loved ones say all of the unsaid things they’ve kept buried. While this may be painful to hear, it will ultimately help them move beyond past hurts.
Start the Healing Process at Gateway
If you hope to rekindle a broken relationship that has been damaged by your drug or alcohol use, but you haven’t pursued rehabilitation, recovery should be your first step.
At Gateway, our compassionate team is here to offer you the help you need to overcome addiction to drugs or alcohol. Our evidence-based treatments can help you take those all-important first steps toward sobriety. To learn more about our Chicago-based programs, contact us today at 877.379.9078.
