Tag Archives: relationships

Setting Boundaries: A Script for Wives

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When your husband is struggling with addiction, boundaries can feel confusing, scary, and emotionally loaded. Many wives know they need boundaries, but they do not know what boundaries are supposed to sound like, how to communicate them without escalating conflict, or how to follow through without feeling cruel or abandoning. Boundaries are not punishments.They are […]

Adapting to a Blended Family

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Blended families are formed when two people start a life together and bring children from previous relationships. Each blended family encounters its own set of problems and requires its own unique solutions because of the complex mix of the members of the blended family.  Adjusting to a new family dynamic can take time, but with […]

Dating in Recovery

Forming romantic relationships after addiction can be a challenge. You may struggle with lower self-esteem even in sobriety or just feel uncomfortable bringing up your past in a “getting to know you” setting. It is okay to feel uncomfortable when meeting new people after going through something so traumatic. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, […]

Maintaining Relationship Intimacy

Are you having difficulty becoming or staying aroused? There are several psychological and biological factors that may be contributing to this roadblock. Most of the time this sort of situation is out of your control. So how do you take back control of the intimacy you experience in your relationship? Recharge your libido with these […]

How Do I Talk to My Partner About My Trauma?

Opening up to a partner about past or present trauma is a huge relationship hurdle to work through. We want the people we love to support us through the toughest of times, but vulnerability is scary. We may fear rejection once we reveal hardship and the more negative sides of our lived experiences. Trauma is […]

Confronting Your Partner About Their Addiction

When a spouse or partner develops an addiction, it affects both people in the relationship. While the addicted person may suffer a great deal, the brunt of their addiction lands squarely on the people around them. Neither person may know what to do, complicating the situation, and increasing the odds that the relationship may not […]

If You Think Your Partner is Battling Addiction

If you suspect that your romantic partner struggles with addiction, you may feel hesitant to say something to them. You may worry that they’ll laugh it off, get angry with you for doubting their self-control or even retreat further into isolation and substance dependency. The last thing you want is to make things worse. Unfortunately, […]

Do You Have an Intimacy Disorder?

Many people find that they experience difficulty in maintaining healthy, long-lasting romantic relationships. They may not know that they have an intimacy disorder related to both emotional and sexual issues. It can help to understand that there is a name for what is going on. This isn’t a personal failure on one’s part when it […]

The Cause of Counter-Dependency

The topic of codependency comes up regularly within many discussions revolving around addiction. Many people battling addiction are often codependent on others because they cannot financially support their habit from drugs and alcohol on their own. Loved ones will also become codependent on the person with active addiction when they start putting their needs after […]