Healthy relationships are a key part of healing in the addiction recovery process. Loving and supportive relationships bring out the best in us and ease emotional problems.
Healthy relationships are characterized by mutual respect, sharing, honesty, trust and healthy communication. Unfortunately, clients entering treatment and their family members are often struggling with relationship problems and are not familiar with healthy relationship characteristics.
At Challenges Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment Rehab Center and Relapse Prevention Center, part of the compassionate care we provide is helping our clients experience healthy relationships once again as part of the recovery process.
Although problems are different in each family, there are commonly occurring unhealthy behavior patterns that are frequently observed during the treatment process. Often these unhealthy patterns are part of a behavioral condition referred to as “Codependency.”
The term “codependent” originated as a way to describe those who use relationships with others as their source of value and identity. It’s not at all unusual that codependent problems often affect the family members as well as the chemically dependent person.
Some examples of codependent characteristics with regard to family members with addictiion include:
Excessive or inappropriate care taking
Difficulty with feelings
Rescuing – (Example: Solving people’s problems for them)
Controlling behavior – (Example: Trying to control the uncontrollable)
Dishonesty – (Example: Making up stories to fulfill others’ expectations and or lying for the addict)
Physical Illness
Neglect of self and the body
Rigidity and/or judgmentalism
Difficulty communicating
At Challenges Addiction Treatment and Relapse Prevention Center, relationship healing and codependency problems are addressed throughout the treatment process. Beginning in the assessment process, decisions are made with the client regarding development of a comprehensive treatment plan to address the specific and individualized issues of that individual. These issues commonly include relationship, family and codependency problems. Clients attend process and psycho-educational groups, relationship groups, couples and family individual and conjoint sessions based on individual client needs.
A variety of cognitive/behavioral methods, experiential techniques, solution-focused, and psychodynamic approaches are used to assist clients. By participating, clients develop insight, increase understanding of their own behavior, learn new coping skills, reduce anxiety and stress and improve their ability to communicate effectively with others.
At Challenges, we understand codependence and the importance of relationship healing. Our experienced, highly trained and compassionate staff, help clients identify, address and heal issues related to codependency as they continue on the path of recovery.