Recovering addicts are faced with many challenges, and these challenges can often extend to their romantic partners. During the recovery period, couples often struggle with overcoming feelings of betrayal and frustration, and may have a hard time rebuilding trust and closeness. While there are many resources available to recovering addicts, there are limited resources for the people who love them. In Loving Someone in Recovery, therapist Beverly Berg offers powerful tools for the partners of recovering addicts. Based in mindfulness, attachment theory, and neurobiology, this book will help readers sustain emotional stability in their relationships, increase effective communication, establish boundaries, and take real steps toward reigniting intimacy. The material in this book is drawn from the author’s successful Conscious Couples Recovery Workshop. With more than 25 years in the field, she has developed a unique set of exercises that address the issues faced by couples in recovery. This book addresses the roles that both partners play in recovery, and aims to help readers develop a new appreciation for one another and improve self-confidence and acceptance. The road to recovery is never an easy one, but by building a strong support system, the chances of success are exponentially greater. For more information on Berg’s work, visit consciouscouplesrecovery.com
A compassionate, user-friendly handbook for family and friends navigating the many challenges that come with a loved one's new-found sobriety. A relative or friend has finally taken those tentative first steps toward sobriety. With the relief of this life-changing course of action comes a new and difficult set of challenges for recovering addicts and those who love them. Family members and friends often find themselves unsure of how to weather such a dramatic turn, as the rules and routines of their relationships no longer pertain. Everything Changes assuages fears and uncertainty by teaching loved ones of newly recovering addicts how to navigate the often-tumultuous early months of recovery. Beverly Conyers, author of the acclaimed Addict in the Family, again shares the hope and knowledge that she gained as a parent of a recovering addict by focusing on the aftermath of addiction. She outlines the physical and psychological changes that recovering addicts go through, and offers practical tools to help family members and friends: build a fresh, rewarding relationship with the addictbe supportive without setting themselves up for disappointment avoid enabling destructive behavior set and maintain boundaries cope with relapse deal with the practicalities of sober living, such as helping the addict find a job and deal with the stigma of addiction.
A former alcoholic describes her treatment and recovery, offers encouragement to addicts to seek help, and discusses rebuilding relationships and finding inner peace
Are you feeling exasperated and helpless about your family member's addiction? Are you at your wit's end, having tried everything you can think of to make them stop? If someone you love is engaging in addictive behaviors such as alcohol and drug misuse, eating disorders, smoking, gambling, Internet addiction, sex addiction, compulsive overspending, or relationship addiction, you are undoubtedly experiencing unpredictability in your relationship. Some of the most common emotions you will experience include: - Guilt and shame - Anger and anxiety - Confusion and powerlessness Whether the addict in your life is your spouse, partner, parent, child, friend, or colleague, the key to changing this reality for yourself lies in shifting your focus from your loved one's addiction to you own self-care. This book presents a dramatically fresh approach to help you get off the roller-coaster chaos of addiction, maintain your own sanity and serenity, and live your best life.
“Don’t let someone else's problem destroy the person you were meant to be. You have the right to live a peaceful and fulfilled life full of love! In the book Saving You Is Killing Me: Loving Someone with an Addiction, Andrea Seydel uses the scientific study of human flourishing and happiness to help you restore joy and teaches the reader how to struggle well through the challenges of addiction. You will learn the power of advocating for yourself and how your journey starts by taking back your power and shifting the focus onto you, not your addicted loved one. Seydel brings a wealth of support, lived experience, and her knowledge of positive psychology to help you prioritize your well-being and safeguard your mental health.” -Louisa Jewell MAPP Do you love someone with an addiction? Are you struggling? There is no mistaking it; addiction is a worldwide epidemic. People who struggle with addiction are not the only ones who feel the impact. If you know someone caught in the grips of addiction, you are undoubtedly living your own nightmare. You are probably desperate to find answers, scrambling to figure out what to do next and losing yourself in the process. Feeling hurt, broken and exhausted. Watching someone in active addiction is like mourning the loss of someone still alive. It is incredibly sad, confusing, and draining. The effects of addiction are rarely limited to the person with the addiction. Everyone around is affected in some way, and often it is family members or partners forced to pick up the broken pieces, make excuses, and potentially endure all types of abuse. The second-hand impact and havoc of addiction are often overlooked and underestimated. Are you done with coming second to addiction? Are you trapped in the line of fire and tired of being on an emotional rollercoaster? Or have you lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to someone else? On the surface, Saving You Is Killing Me: Loving Someone with an Addiction is about navigating the path to freedom and a lifetime of healing, resilience, and happiness. But if you dig deeper, it is about creating a life you love, seeing your value, knowing your worth and being inspired to live a life that is better integrated with the person you are meant to be. As a leading voice advancing the science of applied Positive Psychology and the art of well-being, Andrea Seydel is devoted to sharing the science of resilience and ways to enhance your life even through struggle. Trauma and challenges are a fact of life; navigating the turmoil of loving someone with an addiction can be extremely damaging; Seydel teaches the reader how to struggle well and build resilience. Saving You Is Killing Me: Loving Someone with an Addiction offers new hope for reclaiming your life. Seydel provides insights and learning opportunities for self-healing, recovery, and resilience that foster empowerment. When you know it’s time and are ready to prioritize your well-being and safeguard mental health despite someone else's addiction, Andrea Seydel’s book, podcast, and community will support you on the journey back to you. Saving You Is Killing Me: Loving Someone with an Addiction is a helpful community to provide light to a dark path, so you don’t feel alone through this challenge. You don’t have to do this alone. Let’s get started on the journey back to you. “An astonishing amount of information on almost every aspect of resilience. When faced with the experience of trauma, manipulation, codependency, and toxic relationships, using research, interventions and the science of well-being, the reader can better advocate for their needs and reclaim their lives. It’s incredible the wealth of knowledge the author has brought together in this book, which has a distinctly holistic and compassionate feel.” -Rob Hannely Recovery Today magazine.
"[Author Dana] Harron’s emotional and practical advice for this growing global predicament comes highly recommended." —Library Journal In this compassionate guide, eating disorder expert Dana Harron offers hope to partners of people with eating disorders. You’ll discover ways to communicate with empathy and understanding, strategies for dealing with mealtime challenges, and tips to help you both find your way back to trust, love, and intimacy. If your loved one is one of millions of Americans who suffers from an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, you may feel alone, without guidance or understanding. As a romantic partner, you need to know how to navigate issues such as parenting, sex and intimacy, and running a household. This book provides that help by addressing your uniquely complex and difficult situation, and provides much-needed support for growth and healing. In Loving Someone With an Eating Disorder, you’ll find valuable information about eating disorders, diagnostic categories, and common misconceptions. You’ll also learn about the importance of self-care and boundaries for yourself, and find writing and perspective-taking exercises to help you gain a greater understanding of your partner’s struggle. You’ll also learn skills to help you address specific problems, such as managing groceries and meals together, sex and intimacy issues, and concerns about parenting. Finally, you’ll find a practical discussion about treatment and recovery from disordered eating—making it clear that both you and your partner need healing—as well as information about seeking further support.
Love in Recovery is shame-free essential reading for Catholic women who want real answers about how to handle sexual desire and addiction to pornography and masturbation. Rachael Killackey, founder and executive director of Magdala Ministries—an organization that helps women heal from sexual addiction—shares her personal story as she helps you to overcome your dependency, be free from shame, and live in hope. In this much-needed and practical resource, Killackey offers compassionate, down-to-earth advice and identifies the gateways to pornography addiction, its complexities, and the path to healing. You will learn that you can: understand that your first exposure to porn was not your fault; forgive yourself; be honest with the Lord through the Sacrament of Confession; seek accountability and help in a group setting and professional, counseling or spiritual direction, if needed; replace old habits of lust with new ways to love; and share your story for the sake of freeing others. Love in Recovery is also the perfect resource for those working to minister to sexually broken women.
People who suffer from mental illness rarely do so alone. Their families and loved ones face their own set of unique challenges-problems that deserve their own resources and sources of support. This is the first book written specifically to the loved ones of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It helps readers examine how OCD affects their lives and offers a straightforward system for building a healthier, more constructive relationship with OCD sufferers. The book contains basic information about OCD-its definition, cause, and symptoms-and a brief overview of treatments available for the disorder. After these introductory sections, the book focuses on ways readers can foster a healthy relationship with someone with OCD. It includes tips for increasing family involvement, making accommodation for the disorder in daily life, and creating an action plan for change using family contracts. The book also covers relational topics such as parenting and marriage, self-care, and support networking. Throughout, the book illustrates important points with the real-life stories of families living with OCD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can present with a number of symptoms, including anxiety, depression, flashbacks, and trouble sleeping. If your partner has PTSD, you may want to help, but find yourself at a loss. The simple truth is that PTSD can be extremely debilitating—not just for the person who has experienced trauma first-hand, but for their partners as well. And while there are many books written for those suffering from PTSD, there are few written for the people who love them. In Loving Someone with PTSD, renowned trauma expert and author of I Can’t Get Over It!, Aphrodite Matsakis, presents concrete skills and strategies for the partners of those with PTSD. With this informative and practical book, you will increase your understanding of the signs and symptoms of PTSD, improve your communication skills with your loved one, set realistic expectations, and work to create a healthy environment for the both of you. In addition, you will learn to manage your own grief, helplessness, and fear regarding your partner’s condition. PTSD is a manageable disability. While it isn’t your responsibility to rescue your partner or act as his or her therapist, this book will help you be supportive and implement strategies for lessening the negative impact of PTSD—not just for your partner, but for your relationship, and, importantly, for yourself.
In this groundbreaking work, Robert Sternberg opens the book of love and shows you how to discover your own story--and how to read your relationships in a whole new light. What draws us so strongly to some people and repels us from others? What makes some relationships work so smoothly and others burst into flames? Sternberg gives us new answers to these questions by showing that the kind of relationship we create depends on the kind of love stories we carry inside us. Drawing on extensive research and fascinating examples of real couples, Sternberg identifies 26 types of love story--including the fantasy story, the business story, the collector story, the horror story, and many others--each with its distinctive advantages and pitfalls, and many of which are clashingly incompatible. These are the largely unconscious preconceptions that guide our romantic choices, and it is only by becoming aware of the kind of story we have about love that we gain the freedom to create more fulfilling and lasting relationships. As long as we remain oblivious to the role our stories play, we are likely to repeat the same mistakes again and again. But the enlivening good news this book brings us is that though our stories drive us, we can revise them and learn to choose partners whose stories are more compatible with our own. Quizzes in each chapter help you to see which stories you identify with most strongly and which apply to your partner. Are you a traveler, a gardener, a teacher, or something else entirely? Love is a Story shows you how to find out.
