If you’re in recovery or residential treatment for substance use disorder in Pennsylvania and thinking about stepping back into the dating world, we support you! It’s a huge step and we want all of our Port Matilda community members to be aware of the research around relationships in recovery before they take the plunge.
- It’s crucial that you take a step back from people who consciously or unconsciously put your sobriety and substance reduction efforts at risk. These could be friends, lovers, spouses, parents, other family members, children, coworkers, or potential partners who actively tempt you to abuse drugs or alcohol.
- You must be ready to place and enforce boundaries in all recovery relationships even though supportive relationships are some of the best sobriety management support systems. Despite someone being a healthy influence on you as you navigate recovery, conflicts and boundary compromises can occur at any time.
Overall, building supportive networks of friends and peers that positively influence your sobriety, stress management, and relapse prevention is one of the keys to long-term success. However, we think it’s more than possible to enrich and ensure your sobriety with healthy, respectful, informed romantic relationships.
Pros & Cons of Dating After Substance Use Disorder Treatment
When one team of researchers examined how romantic relationships and substance abuse overlap for young adults, they found that under substance-abuse free environments, relationships are usually linked with less alcohol and marijuana abuse. Since we’re interested in getting back to a seemingly normal, substance-free lifestyle, this can be uplifting and potentially applicable at a certain stage of sobriety.
There was another finding that indicated married couples may be less likely to smoke detrimental amounts of cigarettes. While tobacco addictions rarely result in as many consequences as alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or meth use disorders, these findings can be encouraging for people who have sustained the neurological experience of addiction. This particular study suggests that well-structured relationships, whether they be marriages, couples living together, or couples living apart—romantic bonds can have the potential to reduce substance abuse and increase success in recovery.
One important facet of the study did highlight that substance use does affect the relationship, and a partner’s substance use habits absolutely touch and influence someone’s other half.
Dating in Recovery: The Pros
- Supportive partners can help to protect and enrich your sobriety
- The presence of a romantic partner can provide emotional support, feelings of safety and stability, and healthy sexual interaction that can reduce stress and increase feelings of closeness
- Being in a relationship may be naturally motivating to keep sobriety boundaries and reduce substance abuse
Dating in Recovery: The Cons
- Dating someone who uses or abuses substances can put your recovery at risk or present more opportunities for relapse
- Relationship conflict, turmoil, or heartbreak can lead to triggers or cravings for problematic substances and behaviors
- Being in a relationship may give individuals a false sense of achievement or create the impression that recovery work is no longer necessary, decreasing relapse prevention awareness
To help you approach and accurately assess all the pros and cons of romance in recovery, we provide therapeutic services that support your critical thinking and an ongoing relapse prevention mindset:
- Counseling for individual clients
- Supervised marital and family counseling
- Peer-to-peer guided group counseling
All of these options and more are available for people who struggle with addiction near the State College and Altoona areas of PA.
Learn Healthy Sober Dating Techniques and Relapse Prevention Methods Today
St. Joseph’s Institute for Addiction advocates for love in its many forms and celebrates the success of romantic relationships in our community. That’s why we feel practicing the five Ps of successful recovery in romantic and platonic situations is a safe bet:
- Purpose: pinpointing your purpose, goals, and aspirations in life and making sure that those are supported and celebrated in any relationship you form
- Practice (continuing to acknowledge the life-long presence of addiction and adhering to all treatment plan guidelines and recommendations consistently and continuously)
- Perseverance (understanding that practicing sobriety won’t always easy or rewarding in the short-term while continuing in recovery anyway)
- Prayer (building and calling on a personal relationship with God, a Creator figure, or a force bigger than yourself to get you through challenges and cravings)
- Praise (highlighting and celebrating your wins, hard work, consistency, and perseverance)
If you have any doubts about how to implement these pointers, make sure to contact us today. We’re here to support you, your relationship, and your future in recovery!
