Can I Ever Trust My Teen Again?
By
Addiction is guilty of taking the trust out of relationships. In this capacity, your teen who has struggled with drugs and alcohol has probably done everything possible to make you lose their trust for them through their addictive behaviors. Lying, cheating, and stealing are common actions that people who suffer from substance abuse turn to in order to remain under the influence. In doing so, they break any trust you once had and give you every reason to become suspicious of them.
Once they get sober, there is no way that you will just automatically trust them. Reliance in their recovery will take some time to gain assurance and build the trust back up. If everyone is doing their part to mend fences, then trust can be reestablished with some effort. To make trust become a reality in your future, you may need a few guidelines to help you to achieve a better relationship and understand each other's roles. Your teen will need to practice their recovery principles and use the process of therapy to help work through the issues that surround their substance abuse. Doing the work will assist them in regaining their morals and move past the pain from doing an internal house cleaning. You will have to seek your own help so that you can learn how to cope with their addiction, make changes to keep from being codependent or enable their behavior and discover how to forgive your teen moving forward.
Put it in the past
Whatever has happened before needs to be let go of in the spirit of forgiveness. Although you may never forget what has happened, you should not live with the resentment any longer by creating a new outlook on the relationship.Put out expectations
If you want your teen to be successful in their sobriety, you must let go of your expectations. Not having any notions on what they should be doing will alleviate putting extra pressure on them to stay sober.Put communication first
Working through the problems that have occurred in your relationship comes from positive communication. One of the best ways to become better connected with your teen is to get a better understanding of what the goals are in the relationship and ways to work through your issues going forward by making individual and family therapy a priority. Gaining trust back in a relationship takes some time and effort from both you and your teen. You can never get back what you once had even though rebuilding the trust could make your bond stronger than ever.Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center leads the way with progressive, evidence-based programming to most effectively treat each individual adolescent while focusing on the uniqueness of each client. Healing the mind, the body, and the spirit as one in the same can make the biggest difference in staying sober.
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