The battle of addiction breaks the hearts of families and tears them apart. Sometimes, many people in the family struggle with addiction problems. For example, perhaps the husband and wife both fight against drug and alcohol addiction. In those cases, doing rehab for couples could be beneficial. This type of rehab could even save your marriage. However, how does a couple’s rehab differ from rehab for singles?
Better Support System
In many cases, you get better support than if you tried to go it alone. One of the ways that you can tell if someone will succeed in the fight against addiction depends on what type of support system they have. The stronger your support system, the better. For example, some addicts who go to rehab for singles could struggle as soon as they leave the rehab center—it’s a problem commonly spoken of. The problem stems from no support in the real world. Granted, you may know some addicts in rehab fighting the same battle, but in the real world, having your old addict friends around can turn into you going back to the same habits. When you go to a couple’s rehab, you fight the same battle as what everyone else is fighting, but you have a partner in the fight.
Improves Your Relationship with the Other
Provided that both people want to stop doing drugs, couple’s rehab could even improve their relationship because they both fight in the same battle. They can provide mutual support whenever the other one feels weak. This can make a big difference in their overall well being. You don’t get the same treatment in a regular rehab.
Both Have the Same Homework
The therapist will give both people the same homework for each session. In a regular rehab session, you will take your own journey to figure things out. The therapist will evaluate you as a couple and try to address some of the root causes of drug addiction.
Keeping Problems from Getting in the Way
The therapist will look at the couple as a home and try to identify problems before they turn into a growing tension. This isn’t the same in a solo session where you’re by yourself. In these cases, the therapist will focus solely on you to figure out what could be the underlying cause of the problem.
Addressing Codependency
With couples, sometimes you have a problem that arises known as codependency. This leads to drug addiction, and this is where couples’ rehab differs a little. The therapist attempts to address the issues associated with codependency like low self-esteem and breaking the cycle of addiction. Many times, people fail to address this problem, and it leads to a 40 to 60-percent relapse rate. While many people try to be free from it, codependency means that the partners remain excessively emotionally attached, and this can lead to unclear thinking. This can have an impact on your ability to stay healthy and free from addiction. You also don’t want a relationship that is entirely one-sided. While the therapist can try to address this with people who are doing rehab alone, if they have a dependency problem, it can be harder to dig into the issue without the other partner.
When Doing Rehab Alone Could Be Better
You do have some cases where it might not make sense to do rehab with your partner. Some of the examples of when it can be a counterproductive practice include:
- When there’s domestic violence.
- When you don’t get along with your partner.
- When the other partner isn’t willing to stop doing drugs and alcohol.
These are all cases where an attempt to do couples’ rehab could fall flat on its face. When you have one partner who doesn’t want to be there, it can turn rehab into a counterproductive activity because they won’t do the exercises or work at getting clean. No matter what type of rehab that you choose to enter, you still have to put in an effort to combat the drugs and alcohol, or you could find that you won’t succeed.
Couples’ rehab will work great if you both struggle with addiction because you can serve to support each other in your battle. The one danger that exists is that when one person falls, they could both fall. However, this type of rehab has the advantage that you can both support each other in working to get clean. The one thing to remember is that sometimes you may relapse, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t try again. You can keep trying as many times as what it takes. Call one of our counselors today at 844-639-8371.