Hawaii Island Recovery 
Addiction is difficult for anyone to overcome. While many may experience the effects and challenges of addiction while feeling isolated, addiction can also affect entire families. Some households may have multiple members living with addiction. Committing to a sober lifestyle alongside one’s partner can be a great way of engaging in truly transformative change. However, there can still be many unique challenges for partners and loved ones who pursue sobriety together. Working with each other and the professionals like those available at Hawaii Island Recovery is necessary to make the most of this healing together.
Developing Addiction Together
Addiction can be the result of many different stresses. For some, preexisting mental health disorders or past traumatic experiences can all lead to exploring alcohol and drug use to self-medicate their effects, developing into addiction. However, some traumas and factors affect more than a single person, bringing spouses or partners to explore addictive substances together. Understanding these challenges and how they impact not just one person’s use but also the use of addictive substances in a partner is part of learning to pursue sobriety together.
Normalizing Substance Use at Home
The use of drugs and alcohol can develop over time, with the steady building of tolerance leading to more and more use. However, this increased use can also influence one’s partner and the overall perception of drugs and alcohol in a household. Partners increasing the use of addictive substances can normalize otherwise dangerous levels of use, and a spouse or partner may begin to engage in these substances at a similar rate or cause a partner to not think of the dangers of use as much.
This normalization of substance use can lead to addiction in partners, spouses, and family members. A couple’s routine may also be built around incorporating the use of these substances, such as having wine together with dinner, making it easier to develop unhealthy habits without being checked and even feeling accepted at greater levels.
Accessibility
Having drugs or alcohol in the house and a partner who is at least somewhat curious can make accessing these substances easier. As one partner brings these substances into the home, partners can be more likely to use them themselves, leading to a culture of use and greater ease of accessibility.
Stresses of a Shared Environment
Partners living together can also share many stresses. From financial stresses to unhealthy relationships, even if just periods of disagreement, can lead to a stressful home atmosphere. Partners may look to addictive substances to cope with these shared stresses together. Some may use them to bond despite shared stress, while others may feel more comfortable engaging in a coping strategy alongside a partner, even if this coping strategy is destructive on its own.
Other partners may turn to drugs or alcohol to avoid confronting difficult discussions or problems within the relationship or problems that affect them equally, such as looming financial stresses.
Ease of Enabling
Even if a person is not actively engaging in addictive substances with a partner, they can still influence addiction through enabling behaviors. Using addictive substances, accepting a partner’s increasing use within the house, covering financial burdens or household chores, and more can all be various ways of enabling addiction to develop. To pursue treatment alongside a partner means not just addressing the use of drugs or alcohol in daily life but also confronting enabling behaviors that may create hurdles to an effective recovery journey.
The Unique Challenges of Deciding to Pursue Sobriety Together
Choosing to pursue sobriety with a partner is an amazing commitment. However, it is important to be cognizant of the hurdles that come with this joint approach to treatment and recovery. While a partner committing to their own life of sobriety can be a truly amazing and supportive presence throughout treatment and recovery, there are also some unique challenges.
The Risk of Relapse
Those who pursue sobriety alongside a partner can benefit greatly from the understanding and support of a sympathetic loved one, both in a treatment program and at home. However, it can also inadvertently increase the risk of relapse. While unfortunate, relapse is a possible part of the recovery journey. If a partner in recovery experiences a relapse, it can increase the chances of relapse in both partners. Reintroducing addictive substances to the house, romanticizing past use, and more can be exceptionally challenging when a partner is experiencing a relapse.
Navigating Personal Change
Addiction recovery is a personal journey, and each individual will have their own goals, best practices, and transformations throughout the process. For some partners, relationships may have been built and bonded while surrounded by the use of drugs or alcohol. Personal goals in recovery can lead two people in different directions. Learning to accept a partner and support their transformations while also pursuing personal goals can be difficult. Partners must address these changes in relationship dynamics and goals throughout the recovery process.
The Potential Dangers of Breakups
Unfortunately, breakups do happen. While nobody begins a serious relationship intending to break up, recognizing the possibility is important for making an effective recovery plan. Breakups can be difficult to overcome and come with intense emotional strain. Depression, guilt, doubt, and much more are all common following a breakup. For partners who pursue sobriety, breaking up can not just remove otherwise effective and knowledgeable support but can even increase the chance of relapse in recovery.
Continuing to navigate treatment and pursue personal development outside of these relationships, as well as ensuring that there are multiple supports and family members available, is necessary. Deciding to pursue sobriety with a partner can lead to a healthy relationship, but a partner should not be the only support available. Continuing to make friends, work with other family members, and explore recovery options alongside professionals and peers at Hawaii Island Recovery are all part of a comprehensive approach to treatment, especially to prevent the potential negative effects of a breakup on a person’s sobriety.
Creating Your Plan to Pursue Sobriety Together
Despite these risks, deciding to pursue sobriety with a partner can be an amazing experience that marks the beginning of a new daily life and deeper relationships. It also empowers each person to approach sobriety with the support of the most important people. Working with professionals to explore treatment options alongside a partner can create a truly unique and transformative experience. Hawaii Island Recovery’s unique approach to Hawaii rehabilitation is equipped to help partners explore healing together to overcome addiction and its effects on entire households.
Pursue Sobriety by Committing to Couples Therapy and Treatment
Couples therapy and treatment programs are instrumental in understanding the effects of addiction on a person’s own daily life and others. Dedicated couples therapy programs are also instrumental in helping to develop communication strategies for navigating stress and setting expectations together while embracing change.
Depending on each person’s history and relationship dynamics, couples therapy can also help to address underlying challenges that relationships may have and work to create a genuinely healthy and supportive atmosphere at home while overcoming addiction and its effects. This can be a necessary part of adapting to change and rebuilding trust with a partner to establish a healthy and equal partnership throughout the recovery process.
Embracing Accountability as You Pursue Sobriety
Peers and supports in recovery can help each person stay accountable throughout the recovery process. Having a partner to pursue sobriety with can further these advantages. Working with a professional at Hawaii Island Recovery can help establish accountability and explore ways for partners to hold each other responsible throughout their recovery journey.
Embracing accountability can also mean making a plan to ensure both partners can continue to attend treatment programs, support groups, and self-care. Working together to solve transportation to outpatient treatment or work, make daily schedules, and more can all help keep both partners accountable.
Lastly, accountability in financial responsibilities can also be another key part of effective treatment and recovery. Working together to create a budget that tends to bills, personal needs, hobbies, and more can be a great way of keeping each person accountable. If budgets aren’t lining up, it may be important to adjust the plan and look into why the budget isn’t working to address potential relapse or other self-destructive practices.
Make Time for Communication and Change
Having others who understand and sympathize with the challenges of addiction recovery in a person’s own home can be a major asset. However, partners will have to make a dedicated effort to use this advantage. Changing daily schedules to ensure time to sit down together, communicate, bring up new changes or challenges, or discuss personal triggers or concerns can all be a great way to pursue sobriety alongside a trusted partner.
For many, this can mean setting dedicated times, such as around dinner or on weekdays, to check in and talk about challenges, urges, cravings, and other challenging topics in recovery. Actively developing these communication strategies can also create a home atmosphere that is supportive of expressing personal needs, addressing vulnerable topics, and creating an honest and safe home life.
However, developing effective communication can be challenging, and having the support of professionals to help partners explore new ways of communicating and listening may be necessary to address addiction and empower the relationship with a partner.
Pursue Sobriety by Learning to Celebrate Together
Recovery is hard. Focusing on one’s own recovery while also supporting a partner in navigating their recovery path is also exhausting. Because of this, it is important to celebrate reaching each new milestone together. From a person’s first entire 24 hours sober to their first week, to their first month, and longer, taking time to celebrate accomplishments is essential. Overcoming stresses, successfully enacting grounding strategies to navigate cravings, and engaging in self-care to address stress are all things that should be celebrated, and a partner can be the best equipped to recognize the hard work it takes to reach this success.
Having a partner pursue sobriety alongside each person can be an amazing way to keep a caring, supportive cheerleader at home. Celebrating these accomplishments and milestones can also reinforce effective strategies, motivation, and a healthy and positive atmosphere for sustained sobriety.
This can also result in finding new ways to reward each other throughout the recovery journey or plan for joint rewards. For example, if both partners reach a certain milestone together, they may plan a nice reward together. A nice dinner out, vacation trip, or new shared experience in sobriety can further reinforce positive sober change together.
Create Healthy Boundaries
While deciding to pursue sobriety together is an amazing experience and journey, it is still important to explore personal goals and needs throughout recovery. Working with professionals and partners to set and respect healthy boundaries is crucial to empower each person to explore their best approach to healing, even if it is different than a partner’s approach.
Having personal goals and hobbies outside of the relationship can also be necessary for pursuing a sober lifestyle that works for each person. Personal space and time to commit to individual goals and hobbies can be crucial in establishing a sober identity, with boundaries even with supportive partners being a necessary part of this personal and spiritual exploration of oneself.
Changing the Environment to Pursue Sobriety
At-home atmospheres with someone living with addiction can be complicated or delicate due to the use of drugs or alcohol. Normalizing unhealthy use of addictive substances practices can result in compromised communication or pervasive feelings of anger, anxiety, depression, and other challenges. However, working with a partner to pursue sobriety means also changing the environment at home to reflect these new convictions.
Normalizing expressing personal needs and vulnerabilities, eliminating addictive substances from the home, and transforming living spaces that may have once been associated with substance use into new hobby areas can all help to change the environment at home from one that celebrates substance use to one that facilitates healthy practices in sobriety.
Commit to Continued Treatment
Addiction recovery is a long journey, and it will come with many ups and downs, triumphs, and challenges. However, committing to such a continued journey should be celebrated, and pursuing sobriety alongside a partner means committing to this kind of continued treatment together. Some days can be challenging for one or both partners. Committing to continued treatment to continue developing effective coping strategies and the best strategies to provide support is part of navigating the ups and downs of recovery.
Continued treatment together can also help partners adjust to new stresses and challenges that will manifest throughout the recovery journey. It can also further levels of accountability and help partners continue to make effective adjustments in their recovery journey.
Hawaii Island Recovery’s Support of Sober Change
Finding effective treatment for partners overcoming addiction together can be challenging, and both partners have to be equally dedicated to exploring change and healing. Hawaii Island Recovery can help partners explore both professional treatment and personal needs through effective approaches to personalized care.
Supporting Family Programs
Dedicated family programming can empower partners to explore sobriety together by developing effective communication strategies while addressing underlying aspects of these relationships. These programs can deepen levels of understanding, help navigate challenges and stresses, and ensure that partners are sharing sober goals while prioritizing personal needs for an effective approach to sustainable sobriety.
Pursue Sobriety, Spiritual Healing, and Mindfulness
Addiction affects every facet of daily life, from physical and emotional needs to spiritual health. Blending spiritual healing practices with professional treatment can empower partners to explore their own needs and communicate with a partner on a more intimate level through understanding and shared spiritual healing.
Nature-based group therapies, oceanic healing opportunities, mindfulness practices, and spiritual guidance at Hawaii Island Recovery can all be great ways of exploring new spiritual healing practices together, helping bring effective spiritual healing home to further create a new life of sobriety.
Life Skills and Education
Working with professionals and addictionologists can help each person explore the effects of addiction in their daily lives. However, at Hawaii Island Recovery, each program also explores effective and practical life skills that families and partners can use to create a transformed home life. Education about addiction together can ensure that partners can explore new levels of understanding and forgiveness while avoiding unnecessary blame that may linger in these relationships.
Life skills like critical thinking, decision-making, communication, and resilience-building strategies are all also employed to ensure that each person can be their own best advocate for change while effectively interacting with their partner for mutual sober success.
Pursuing sobriety alongside your partner can be a transformative experience, but it does demand a unique approach to healing. If you and your partner are ready to commit to healing together, Hawaii Island Recovery can help you today. With comprehensive individualized treatment alongside effective family programs, we can help you and your partner explore your newfound sober lives while also learning to best support each other for a unified and effective approach to sobriety. We blend proven therapies in treatment with experiential healing opportunities, education, and spiritual healing practices to create a truly unique Hawaii rehabilitation. For more information on how we can create a program for you and your partner, call us today at (866) 390-5070.
