It is not easy to mend broken ties and rebuild connections. For some people, their resentment and anger can make it just as hard as trying to recover from drugs. However, it is possible to repair relationships following rehab if you use these helpful tips:
1. Communicate
To repair your relationships, you need to regain trust. When it comes to your past mistakes, be honest about them, and be honest in your current actions and words as well. By proving on a consistent basis that you keep your promises, there will be a better chance for you to earn back the trust you have lost. Once you have regained their trust, it will go a long way towards being involved in their lives once again.
Communication is necessary for a good relationship. In order to rebuild a relationship, you must reopen lines of communication. Begin by telling people you want to reconnect with that you got help for your drug addiction and that you have completed treatment.
Tell them you are working on putting your life back together and would like to mend your relationship. If possible, communicate your message in person. If that is not possible, send an email or letter - or even a text message or phone call.
Basic communication from you could open up the line of communication. Just be aware that if there is resentment and deep pain that it could take additional action from you in order to get a response from people. Consider couples rehab to work together.
2. Be Honest And Ask For Forgiveness
If you have struggled with addiction, then there is a good chance you have struggled with denial as well. To live without denial, you need to admit that you have made mistakes that have hurt people.
Instead of carrying around shame and guilt about your past, apologize to people around you, and ask for their forgiveness. Even if family members or friends are hesitant or slow to forgive, be aware that by apologizing and asking for forgiveness it will free you from your guilt.
3. Be Intentional and Active
Relationships have a tendency to suffer whenever people fail to be active within them. Friends and family become secondary to your chosen drug when you were using and you did not play an active role in your relationships.
If your marriage has been damaged due to your neglect or absence, be sure to spend more time with your husband or wife. If your relationships with your children were minimized, be sure to take the time to become involved in their interests and lives. Be interested. Leave handwritten cards on the kitchen counter. Make a surprise dinner reservation. Go to baseball practice.
4. Go To Meetings
When you get involved in outpatient treatment or support groups after your rehab it demonstrates that you take your sobriety seriously - which you definitely should. Going to meetings can also help you connect with other people who are going through the same process that you are in trying to repair relationships following addiction. Advice or support from people who are in the same situation that you are can help you stay on track and be very helpful.
5. Be Prepared For Resistance And Don't Expect Any Immediate Changes
It is very important to keep in mind that your colleagues, family, and friends, did not go through rehab and did not have the same chance to heal themselves that you did. While you were recovering and in treatment, they kept living their same lives.
Just like it took time for you to heal in rehab, it will take time to repair your relationships. Don't be offended or surprised if you are met with resistance or hesitation and when people do not trust your actions or believe what you say. Be patient and know that earning their trust again is going to take some time. Being able to stay humble and patient through this process will make things easier.