Navigating the road of your recovery will be fraught with all kinds of dangers. You will need to seek care and attend treatment, which includes different kinds of therapies. When you are attending inpatient therapy, it will be important for you to have a good support system. Many times, this support system is made up of family and friends who care about you and want you to succeed. Even though these people love and care for you, your condition may have caused stress for them too. Sometimes, your family may have even played a role in declining mental health. The family dynamic can be difficult to navigate as well, particularly in a treatment situation.
Here are six tips for handling family relationships during recovery:
1. Educate
Your family is going to need to understand your specific condition and how it has affected you. They should be taught about what kinds of things you do to manage your disorder. They need to know if there are some specific triggers they should be aware of, especially if you are going to be living with them. The more they understand the disorder, the better you are going to be able to navigate the situation together.
2. Tell the Truth
Some of the events from your past are going to be painful and difficult for you to deal with. You are going to need to share some of this with your family. They may not want to know everything, but you will need to share anything that directly involves them. This all might be best discussed in family therapy so that a counselor can be present to help your family deal with some of the events from your past. In order for them to be able to trust you again, you will have to be honest and not hold back.
3. Make Amends
Your untreated condition may have lead you to mistreat your family. While this is not always the case, it’s important to understand stress you might have caused them and look at it from their perspective. If needed, make sincere apologies, ask for forgiveness, and then move on. Do not dwell on the past. Move forward into the new life you are creating for yourself.
4. Keep them Involved
As you maintain your new state of well-being, utilizing the tools you have learned, it may be difficult to think about anyone but yourself. This is not to say that you are going to turn into a selfish person, but you will be dealing with a lot of important things and sometimes you need to simply focus on yourself. If is important for you to make some time in your schedule to keep your family involved in what you are doing and how you are doing. If you can keep your family involved during the process, they will be better equipped to help you with your aftercare and to remain involved in the future.
5. Be Patient
Your family is not perfect. No one’s family is perfect, despite what you see on social media! The more information they have, the better they can help you, but nothing happens overnight. Just as your recovery is a process, so is your family’s understanding of what you have been through, what you are going through, and where you are headed. It will take some time for them to understand how they can help you and what they can best do to be of use. It will take them some time to get used to the person who you are becoming as well. Give them the time and space that they need just like they are giving that to you.
6. Know When to Walk Away
With the help of your recovery counselor, it is possible that you will need to walk away from someone who is not going to be able to support you on the journey that you have committed to. If someone you love is not going to be able to be supportive and is really detrimental to your recovery, you will need to take a step back and evaluate your relationship with that person. It is important to your recovery and important to your new life that you make a clean break.
