Addiction’s Impact on Relationships

By Matt Gonzales

Addiction is a chronic brain disease that can change a person’s life. The disorder can affect work performance and friendships. It can also affect the relationship between the person battling addiction and his or her significant other.

Family members of people with addiction often suffer the consequences of a dysfunctional home environment. Codependency, an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual’s ability to sustain healthy relationships, often exists within these families.

Codependency affects a spouse, parent, sibling, friend or coworker. Family members of people with addiction battle fear, anger, pain or shame. The significant other of a person with addiction may feel a sense of guilt, a need for approval and chronic anger. However, these feelings often are ignored or repressed.

Disregarding emotions is common among family members in these situations. They develop behaviors that cause them to ignore, deny or avoid difficult emotions. The person battling addiction often receives much of the focus.

A husband or wife often spends much of his or her time caring for the addicted spouse, which may lead to enabling. Enabling can result in the spouse’s continued substance abuse.

In some cases, drug use may cause violence.

A 2003 study published in Addictive Behaviors examined the physical aggression among couples on days when male partners use drugs. The report found that the likelihood of male-to-female physical aggression was higher on days of substance use.

The study also indicated that alcohol and cocaine use was associated with increases in the daily likelihood of physical aggression. Marijuana and opioid use were not associated with an increased likelihood of violence.

Drug-Using Couples

If a romantic partnership includes two people suffering from addiction, the relationship could be filled with dysfunction, codependency and excessive drug use.

A 2006 study titled “I love you … and heroin: care and collusion among drug-using couples” analyzed the relationships of 10 heroin- and cocaine-using couples from Hartford, Connecticut.

The report, published in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy found that drug-using couples often help each other avoid withdrawals by encouraging further drug use.

In fact, the study found that women who reported higher relationship quality were less likely than women who reported low relationship quality to complete treatment and more likely to use drugs after rehab.

The happier the marriage of a drug-using couple, the more difficult it is for the wife to achieve sobriety, the report found.

The study also indicated that drug-using couples cared for each other similarly to the ways nondrug-using couples cared for their intimate partners. However, they often show this love by encouraging the other person to use drugs.

The Benefits of Treatment

Those who battle addiction should seek immediate treatment. Rehab programs generally offer individual, group or family therapy sessions and evidence-based levels of care that cater to an individual’s specific needs.

For example, The Recovery Village, located in Umatilla, Florida, treats individuals for drug and alcohol addiction, and eating and mental health disorders. Its levels of care include detox, residential treatment, intensive inpatient and outpatient treatment and sober housing.

If you and your significant other are using drugs, professional treatment is needed to prevent lifelong problems.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’][/author_image] [author_info]Matt Gonzales is a writer and researcher for DrugRehab.com. His writing credits include writing for a daily publication, multiple weekly journals, a quarterly magazine and various online platforms. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication, with a journalism concentration, from East Carolina University[/author_info] [/author] .

Sources:

Fals-Stewart, W, Golden, J. & Schumacher, J.A. (2003, December). Intimate partner violence and substance use: A longitudinal day-to-day examination. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460303001527

Mayo Clinic. (2014, December 5). Treatments and drugs. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/basics/treatment/con-20020970

Mental Health America. (n.d.). Co-Dependency. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/co-dependency

Simmons, J. & Singer, M. (2006, March 28). I love you … and heroin: care and collusion among drug-using couples. Retrieved from https://substanceabusepolicy.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1747-597X-1-7