The relationships we build over the course of our lives have the capacity to help strengthen and support us or to weaken and destroy us. They can contribute either to our healing or to exacerbated suffering. As addicts, we often struggle with relationship-building, partly because we’re in a relationship with others also coping with addiction and mental illness. We find ourselves in friendships and partnerships with other people struggling with many of the same unhealed issues. Because of our addictions, many of us lack the skills we need to develop healthy relationships. We’re not able to create a foundation of honesty and openness that allows for peaceful relationship-building.
When we’re embroiled in our addictive cycles, we don’t usually have the clarity and lucidity we need to form healthy relationship patterns. We’re overwhelmed with confusion and despair. We have a hard time taking care of our own needs and ensuring our own well-being, making us unable to contribute to a healthy relationship. We don’t have a clear sense of who we are. We’re struggling with our sense of self-worth. We lack direction and feel misguided. All of these things prevent us from being able to build relationships that are rooted in honesty and communication. We’re still struggling to find ourselves. We’re not yet able to show up for others in the ways healthy relationships require.
Many of us living with addiction are caught in patterns of toxicity, volatility and even abuse. We’re consumed with negativity. We feel depressed, afraid, and ashamed of ourselves. We are not yet in a solid place within ourselves to be able to build healthy relationships from the ground up because our own personal foundation is still on such shaky ground. We’re still dealing with too many deeply rooted personal issues. We still have a tremendous amount of healing to do. We’re still struggling to make sense of things for ourselves in our own lives. We’re trying to extricate ourselves from years of self-harm and self-destructiveness. We don’t yet have the mental and emotional tools to be good to ourselves, let alone anyone else.
Effective relationship-building happens most successfully when we’re at peace, whole and grounded within ourselves. Because we’re often not in a healthy place when struggling with addiction, we have an especially hard time learning how to forge and develop healthy relationships. Part of our recovery entails learning how to be at peace within ourselves and also with others so that our relationships can be a reflection of our inner peace and not our turmoil.
At The Guest House Ocala, you will be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information on our treatment programs.