One of the many advantages of being in recovery is getting to rebuild the relationships that were damaged, broken or estranged as a result of our addictions. When we’re struggling with our addictions, we can be extremely self-destructive and consumed with anger, both of which can make us take our pain out on the people closest to us. We also tend to isolate ourselves from other people when we’re using or depressed. Being in recovery allows us to reconnect with people we may have hurt or distanced ourselves from while we were using.

Making amends to the people we’ve hurt during the course of our addictions can take a great deal of strength, honesty and humility. It requires that we allow ourselves to be open and vulnerable. We learn how to practice and develop these emotional skills in recovery. Very often we didn’t have the necessary clarity or fortitude while we were using. Developing the emotional intelligence necessary for healthy relationships is a key part of our recovery. It enables us to have healthier and more fulfilling connections with the people we care about. We’re able to form new relationships with other people who are clean or in recovery, connections that are based on mutual support rather than on enabling our addictions.

In addition to seeking forgiveness from others, we have to do the difficult work of learning to forgive ourselves. Many of us struggle to have self-forgiveness, sometimes for the majority of our lives, but the work we do in recovery can help us to learn to have forgiveness, compassion and understanding for ourselves. It takes time for us to even feel we deserve these things. We don’t believe we deserve love, and this innate lack of self-worth is one of the biggest contributing factors to our unhealthy relationships. Recovery helps us realize that we do in fact deserve love and forgiveness. Self-forgiveness enables us to love ourselves, truly and unconditionally. It helps us to feel we deserve loving relationships and allows us to be open to having close, trusting relationships again.

Recovery lets us have our families and friends back. We get to reconnect with the people we hold dear, many of whom we thought we might have lost forever. We stop fueling and perpetuating our long-standing patterns of disappointment, frustration, anger and pain. We get to enjoy spending time with our loved ones again, and we start to see with more clarity all of the possibilities opening up for us.

Our treatment programs include Individual, group and trauma therapy to help you develop the emotional skills necessary to rebuild your relationships. Call 888-570-7154 for more information.