How to Fix a Relationship After an Alcohol Relapse
When an alcoholic relapses, it can revive old fissures in relationships and create new problems. Repairing these relationships and making them healthy again can often be as difficult as remaining sober. Above all, someone in a relationship with an alcoholic must be a supportive and loving friend and not enable the addiction. It is a difficult endeavor, but it is worth it when it produces a sober and healthy relationship.
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Instructions
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Make your loved one aware of the pain that their alcoholism and recent relapse have caused you. Do this in a nonaccusatory manner, simply stating that you wish to enjoy a healthy relationship with them but alcohol is preventing this. They want to change, but often they are not strong enough to do it on their own.
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Decide whether your partner's alcoholism is enough of an issue that it could destroy your relationship entirely. If it is, make them aware that they must make a choice between alcohol and you; this challenge alone could inspire long-term sobriety. If you know you cannot end the relationship regardless of their drinking, continue to be a supportive and positive influence in their journey to sobriety and understand that the issues alcohol causes in your relationships are not how your partner necessarily wants things to be.
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Find support and guidance from your partner's family members. They know the person as well as you do and can often give you advice on how to encourage your partner's sobriety and will probably want to help. Make them aware of the extent alcohol is damaging your relationship. Sometimes the family won't be aware of just how bad alcoholism has a hold on their relative.
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If you have exhausted your options, consider giving your partner an intervention. These calm, no judgment exercises confront an alcoholic's disease in a loving manner and insist on treatment. Your relationship will benefit from this painful experience later.
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Find a support groups for loved ones of alcoholics. These groups provide a forum for you to vent your frustrations and can offer invaluable advice from people going through situations similar to yours. At the very least, these groups will show you that you are not alone and there is a way out.
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Tips & Warnings
Suggest that if your partner is in treatment, you will also get treatment. This may make them more likely to accept by shifting the blame for their disease away from themselves.
Do not attempt an intervention without a professional. Interventions are a very serious method of shocking someone into a sobriety, which can turn ugly if done without care.
