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Who Answers?How 12 Step Recovery Helps to Repair Our Relationships
The path to recovery can be difficult, especially during the first year. Much of this difficulty has to do with facing the damage addiction leaves behind in terms of your relationships and self-esteem.
According to the Yale Journal of Biology & Medicine, for most people, the recovery process unfolds in three main stages: abstinence, repair and growth. Relationship concerns tend to crop up during the repair stage, where issues regarding self and others become the focus of continued growth.
The 12 Step recovery approach entails a step by step process of personal development that places a heavy emphasis on repairing our relationships. Considering the crucial role friends and loved ones play in recovery, relationship building ultimately becomes an ongoing theme throughout the recovery process.
For more information on 12 Step recovery treatment programs, call our toll-free helpline at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) .
The 12 Step Approach to Repairing Relationships
You will learn to make amends to those you’ve harmed.
As most know, the 12 Step recovery approach centers around a series of steps that layout a path for personal development in the recovery process. Steps 8, 9 and 10 in particular address relationship issues and the steps needed to repair the effects of addiction.
Steps 8, 9 and 10 include the following tasks:
- Make a list of all the people we’ve harmed and being willing to make amends to all of them
- Make amends to those we’ve harmed
- Continue to take a personal inventory of our intentions and behaviors towards self and others
These tasks can be hard for anyone to carry out regardless of whether addiction is involved. According to Texas Christian University, the 12 Step recovery approach is designed to provide ongoing support and guidance as you work through this important stage of the recovery process.
How 12-Step Recovery Helps Repair Your Relationships
Developing Healthy Social Skills
Oftentimes, drugs and alcohol act as bridge that enables a person to communicate with others in a seemingly normal manner. Instead, these substances end up compromising your ability to interact with others in healthy ways.
Twelve Step recovery groups provide an environment where recovery addicts can learn how to develop genuine relationships with others without the need for alcohol or drugs.
Emphasis on Honesty
A life of addiction naturally breeds a pattern of lying that works to protect drug-using purposes and behaviors. Over time, the habit of lying to others spills over into a person’s ability to face the truth in his or her own life.
A big part of the 12 Step recovery process entails helping those in recovery develop a mindset that’s capable of facing cold, hard truths about addiction while instilling the importance of maintaining honesty in all areas of one’s life.
12 Step Recovery Programs for Loved Ones
The effects of addiction not only do damage in the addict’s life, but also in the lives of those closest to him or her. For this reason, the 12 Step recovery approach offers support meetings for friends and loved ones who’ve borne the brunt of addiction’s effects.
Support groups such as Al-Anon, Alateen and ACOA help those closes to the addict recover while also equipping them with the support and tools needed to build and maintain healthy relationships in their lives.
If you need help finding a 12 Step recovery program that meets your specific needs or circumstances, feel free to call our helpline at 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction counselors.