Addiction is a disease that spawns symptoms such as lying, manipulating, stealing and cheating. Naturally, chaos enters the scene. While most people never choose to enter a marriage with these types of factors at play, addiction is a progressive disease that can slowly build these conditions into the relationship. What used to be a happy marriage or a happy home can evolve into the appearance of something totally different.
When you love someone who is addicted to a substance, you know how terrible the disease of addiction is. When you’re married to someone who is addicted, not only do you suffer from watching the person you love become affected – you are directly affected, yourself.
The other risk is real physical harm coming to one or both people in the marriage. A person who is abusing drugs can become violent. Violence and violent tendencies may vary due to the addicted spouse’s drug of choice, his or her personality, and his or her intoxication levels. If the substance-using spouse blacks out and becomes aggressive, abuse or injury may occur to the spouse or family. The risk of harm increases if children are in the home. The unpredictable nature of a drug addict puts everyone at risk. Additionally, many people in relationships like this became codependent on their partner and enable the user to continue with their behaviors. As a result, some divorces occur even after the addicted individual has entered recovery – new relationship dynamics develop as a person becomes clean and can irreparably change a relationship.
One of the most interesting facts about addiction and marriage is that addicts and alcoholics marry at the same rate as the general American public. However, according to Divorce Law Firms.COM, people with alcohol or drug dependencies divorce at a rate that is 4 times higher than couples who do not have issues with dependency. Furthermore, the rates do not change from region to region or country to country – it seems that all over the world, marriages in developed countries where one individual has a drinking or drug problem do not survive compared to their drug dependence free peers.
- More than twenty-four million people are addicted to drugs and alcohol according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
- 41 percent of first marriages end in divorce in a couple where at least one partner is drug addict (New Beginnings Drug Rehab, 2019).
If your relationship is deteriorating because of drug addiction, saving it shouldn’t be your primary concern. Save yourself or your partner first, and then work on the relationship. With Serene Retreat as your Rehabilitation guide, you will find everything while focusing on attention to details and considering the individual issues, concerns and preferences to ensure that the person gets his or her healthy lifestyle back.
Serene Retreat is one of the leading Addiction and Mental Health Treatment provider based in Malaysia with its branches locally and abroad. For more information about our treatment programs you can reach us via Call/Whatsapp +60 14-687 2268 or visit our website www.sereneretreat.com.my.
