What to Do: Being In A Relationship With An Addict in Recovery

Being in a relationship with an addict in recovery is pretty challenging, especially if you love the person so much. You are expected to give your best support to your partner. Not to mention, if you only have little knowledge about drug addiction, you may find yourself lost in how you should manage the relationship.

And for some of us, there’s this feeling of fear that our partner might attempt to do drugs again behind our backs. We can’t blame ourselves for not trusting our recovering partners fully, especially if they have a history of lying. A bit of doubt can be helpful in making sure a drug addict in rehab doesn’t go back to their old ways.

Now, if you also share the same sentiments, we’ve gathered a few helpful tips to help an addict recover and to guide you in navigating your relationship with them. We also included methods for you to find out if your partner is using drugs again.

Part 1: What’s Drug Addiction

For starters, drug addiction, also called substance use disorder (SUD), is considered a disease that negatively impacts the brain (nervous system) and a person’s behavior. An individual is considered an addict when they are unable to regulate their use of both legal and illegal substances such as alcohol, nicotine, ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana, and many more.

Even if they want to stop using such substances, they can’t help themselves because their brain craves getting intoxicated.

Since it’s a disease, it’s an important first step for everyone not to discriminate against people who are addicted. Be kind and patient. If you have loved ones, especially a partner who’s a recovering addict, it’s imperative that you know what drug addiction really is so you can support them properly.

Part 2: Four Support Tips For People in a Relationship with an Addict in Recovery

Being in a relationship with an addict in recovery can be different from one case to another. It can be difficult or easy for some people. But one thing is for sure– there’s no one-size-fits-all way how to handle it for you.

However, there are general tips that you can follow to make sure that you are able to extend support and love to your recovering partner.

Tip 1: Trust Your Partner and their Progress

Trusting an addict may not be a good idea, but it’s the first thing that those who are thriving to recover need. Trust can make your partner believe that there’s someone who has faith in their progress. It can help encourage them to do better for themselves and for your relationship to be successful

Speaking of courage to do better, there’s a fascinating true story about a former heroin addict. James Bowen and a cat named Bob. He was a homeless man who saved an injured cat. After that incident, the feline fellow started following him around as he struggled to recover from addiction. Somehow, The cat’s presence has helped him overcome drug dependence.

If a cat can inspire a recovering addict to get better, surely, your presence and trust during your partner’s recovery can have the same or more significant impact, too.

Tip 2: Have Open Communication

Recovery from drug addiction comes with a series of life struggles. Most patients would keep their predicaments to themselves, no matter how hard they are. But since you’re the partner and not just any other person, it will be easier for you to establish open communication.

The last thing you want is for your recovering partner to keep on accumulating their struggles, which may spiral them back to using drugs as a coping mechanism.

You can do this by being open to your partner. ,b>Share your struggles so they can trust you with theirs. Encourage them to be open with you. You may also start by checking up on them on a regular basis. It is a great way to show that you care about how they feel and what they can say. This can eventually lead them to be more comfortable opening up with you.

Most importantly, be kind. And you can do that by avoiding being judgmental when your partner is sharing. You don’t want them to feel alienated, because that would make them close their communication with you or anyone.

Tip 3: Set Limits and Boundaries

One great way of supporting a recovering addict is through setting limits and boundaries to what you can offer to help them. You wouldn’t want them to rely on you full-time. That’s unhealthy for their recovery. So, tell your partner about the things you can and can’t do. That way, they’re aware of how much they can rely on you

Aside from that, setting boundaries can help you, too. You’re not a superhero or a savior. You should see yourself as only a part of your partner’s recovery. Nothing more.

You have to live your life the best you can despite the situation. It will be a great example for your partner if they see that you are doing well. That can inspire them to strive harder toward full recovery so can go back to being a normal couple.

Tip 4: Encourage Attending Regular Therapy Sessions

As mentioned, recovering drug addicts can have a hard time opening up. And more often than not, they’re afraid of being alone, especially when they think that getting treatment sends them to a remote facility for long periods of time. Well, there are cases that really require such measures.

But if your partner is in the later stages of recovery, they may be required to undergo regular counseling sessions or other behavioral therapies. You have to encourage your partner to attend. You may offer to drop them off at the clinic or accompany them. It will surely give them a boost of confidence.

Therapy sessions are an important part of recovery that must not be ignored. Your personal support is essential, but it’s not enough alone when dealing with recovering addicts. Professionals must be involved, too.

Part 3: Ways to Know if An Addict in Recovery is Relapsing or Using Drugs Again

Of course, one way of supporting your recovering partner is by making sure they don’t relapse to using drugs. Because if they do use drugs again, it would reverse all the progress they’ve made and the recovery process would be back to zero.

We don’t want that to happen to the person we love, right? Below, we have two ways for you to know whether or not your partner is relapsing.

Method 1: Observe Warning Signs of Drug-use Relapse

Prevention is better than cure. Like any condition out there, drug relapse has warning signs that you can detect early on. Knowing these signs can help you improve your support for your recovering partner. Here they are

• They miss or joke about their previous lifestyle. If this happens whenever they experience something bad, it could a be sign they want to back to their old ways, using drugs as an escape.
• They suddenly isolate themselves. This is evident when recovering addict stops going to therapies and cancels plans with friends and family with little to no notice.
• They start ignoring their personal hygiene, diet, and other important aspects of their daily lives. When there’s a decline in self-care, the person is susceptible to getting intoxicated again as nothing seems to matter to them anymore.
• They go out with their old friends who are still using drugs. Even by just simply chatting with them, your partner could feel nostalgic or pressured about using drugs again. Not to mention, they are a bad influence on a recovering individual.
• They are developing other addictions. They might not get addicted to drugs again, but there are other addictive alternatives like alcohol. If your partner starts drinking too much alcohol too often, that could be an indication of a relapse.

However, relapsing does not happen in an instant. It takes some time before someone finally descends into using drugs again. So, the signs above will not show at once and can occur for a period of time. This means that you can’t immediately conclude that your partner is relapsing.

The road to recovery requires an individual to be sober no matter the situation. They should be able to resist temptation in order to succeed. If they show one or two signs above, it would be wise to take a closer look and observe often.

Method 2: Use mSpy to See Secret Drug Transactions on the Phone

When someone is relapsing already, they’d find a way to easily order drugs from dealers. And they usually do it on their phone. Just a call or text away and they can go back to their old ways. But of course, you can’t just jump to conclusions. You need proof they’re on it again. And that’s where mSpy for Android and iOS comes in!

It’s a phone monitoring tool that you can install on target Android and iOS phones to remotely view all phone activities. When set up, there’s an option for you to hide the app from your partner’s phone, which makes your spying unnoticeable.

Monitor Messages, Calls, and Contacts

mSpy can provide you with all the SMS sent and received on your partner’s phone with the name of the contact and the complete time & date. So, if your partner happens to withdraw a huge amount of money all of a sudden, you’d know as most banks send a confirmation SMS to the account holder.

Call logs are recorded as well so you can keep track of who your partner is calling. With these features, you’d know if drug transactions have been happening.

Read Social Media Conversations

Your partner may also reach out to drug dealers on Social Media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. This makes it less obvious to them. Good thing, mSpy will sync all their secret chats there for you to read remotely. You may even see pictures of the drugs and whatnot.

Locate Whereabouts

Of course! Your partner may meet someone at an undisclosed location to get the drugs they ordered. You can use mSpy to follow them. This tool has a powerful GPS tracker that can pinpoint the location of the target phone on the map. It can also provide extra details such as the coordinates, the addresses, and the time & date.

With this GPS feature, you will surely know if your partner has been to cannabis stores like Curaleaf or similar places. Yes! You don’t have to follow your partner physically to know their location. You can just go to the location pinned on the map.

Besides that, you may also take advantage of the Geofence feature to know if your partner goes out of their residence or workplace without telling you. This is pretty useful when they are trying to sneak around to buy drugs behind your back

Apart from these three features, there are a lot more spy functionalities that mSpy offers the table. You will get a whole dashboard with all the summaries of your partner’s phone activities. Extra useful features are available as well such as a keylogger, calendar, photos, videos, browsing history, bookmarks, and more.

If you’re interested in using mSpy, just click on the button below to start monitoring your recovering partner.

Conclusion

If you’re in a relationship with an addict in recovery, it could be really challenging. It requires patience, understanding, and faith that your partner can overcome such a disorder. And of course, you can help to achieve that by being supportive, too. If possible, you may even prevent drug relapse or catch it before it gets worse.

But always remember to put yourself first always. Your safety and mental stability are important for you to survive and thrive in the relationship

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