Tips For Setting Boundaries With The Recovering Addict In Your Life
The care and recovery for addiction can come with many obstacles. When a loved one is seeking treatment, it is best to have boundaries in your relationship in order to ensure that everything goes smoothly for both sides.
Knowing how to set boundaries and what boundaries will work best for your situation can allow you to help the recovering addict in your life.
Recognizing What Is Effective
When setting boundaries with your recovering loved one, it is best to make sure that they are appropriate for everyone in the relationship. Stated by the DEA, addiction affects everyone differently and that can manifest throughout the treatment and recovery processes.
Make sure the boundaries you set work for everyone involved.
Boundaries that are too strong or too weak can create further problems and can force everyone involved to make harmful compromises. Effective boundaries should not make anyone sacrifice their control or freedom. Recognize what limits there are and base the boundaries on those.
Be Cautious
As you establish the boundaries for you and your loved one, makes sure that they are possible for everyone. The main purpose of treatment, according to the NIDA, is that it helps the person stop using, remain sober, and allows them to continually be productive in their life.
If the boundaries set are not actually possible for everyone to be able to meet, then those three purposes of treatment can be put in danger. It’s a good idea to be a bit cautious when first trying a series of boundaries.
Things might not always work on the first try so, if needed, you should have back-ups in place or planned in case you need to adjust.
Safety is Key
Boundaries are usually designed for the sake of the safety of everyone involved. The boundaries that are set should take into account the physical, mental, and emotional safety of all parties. A good set of boundaries should prevent any unnecessary risks and have a system in place to handle any potentially harmful situation that happens as a result of the boundaries.
If you are unsure if one of the boundaries set may not be able to safely withstand the situation, consider speaking with any professionals involved with your loved one’s treatment for any advice.
Four Ways Your Behavior may be Hurting the Addict in Your Life
Even with the best of intentions we can end up making the situation worse for an addict. Know what behaviors to avoid and how you can help them.
Be Flexible
Things might not always work on the first try so the boundaries that you set should be able to accommodate changes in the relationship. You can start with a basic set of requirements for your boundaries and build up from there.
Figure out what everyone is and isn’t comfortable with and then add any changes that you need. As time goes on, you can make adjustments to help things fit. If needed, plan back-ups if and/or when the boundaries fail or if they do not fit a situation.
If you or a loved one has an addiction, please contact us through our website or call us at 888-647-0051 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our caring specialists about what treatment options are available for you.
