Your romantic partner might play a bigger role in your drug addiction than you realize. Even if you don’t do drugs together, they may unwittingly enable your behavior or be the trigger that makes you feel the need to drown your sorrows. Fortunately, they also have the power to be a tremendous source of good. Support from loved ones can make all the difference providing the motivation and accountability their partners need to enter treatment, stick to it, and follow their relapse prevention plan afterward to maintain their sobriety. If the thought of being away from your romantic and fellow drug-using partner is what’s stopping you from going to rehab, couples rehab might be a perfect solution.

Going To Rehab Together: Couples Rehab

A growing number of addiction treatment facilities are offering a unique program that caters to couples. Drug rehab for couples combines the benefits of substance abuse treatment and relationship counseling. Due to how influential our interpersonal relationships can be to our relationship with drugs, tackling both together has shown to be extremely promising.

Improved Relationship Dynamics

Counseling can improve communication, lower the likelihood of violence, and can also serve as an important part of a relapse prevention strategy. Treatment can raise awareness of enabling or codependent behaviors (which are extremely common in relationships where one or both partners is an addict) to create a new and positive relationship dynamic that makes it easier to maintain recovery. 

Better Post-Treatment Support

Returning to an environment where one partner is continuing to use heightens the odds of the other, newly sober partner relapsing. Simultaneous addiction treatment carries the benefit of both partners entering recovery at the same time. Both also will be exiting treatment with ideas of how to be better partners to one another and hold each other accountable. Overall, it’s a much better environment for maintaining sobriety. 

How Does Couples Rehab Work?

While traditional treatment focuses on the individual, drug rehab for couples taps into the motivating power of sharing a new experience with loved ones. Just as with traditional rehab, it runs the gambit of being available in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Accommodations will most likely be separate, however, treatment centers that offer specialized couples programs will likely include joint treatment and therapy sessions. 

By allowing both partners to go through rehab simultaneously, partners can get the individual medical and psychological attention they need and get the opportunity to strengthen their relationship. Behavioral couples therapy (BCT) is a specific kind of therapy that has shown great success in reducing or eliminating substance use in couples and improving their overall functionality, reducing instances of intimate partner violence among other positive effects.

Couples Addiction Treatment Might Be Right For You If…

  • Both partners are drug abusers (although they do not need to use the same substances)
  • Have a strong relationship
  • Are highly committed to recovering from their addiction

Where To Find A Couples Rehab Treatment Center

Couples addiction treatment is still rather niche and currently, is only available in a handful of states:

If the treatment center that you’re interested in doesn’t offer a specialized rehab program, alternatives could include you and your partner entering a rehab program at the same time or a supporting partner (who isn’t in rehab) attending a free peer-based group such as Alcoholics Anonymous to learn how to better support their partners and get a better understanding of what they’re currently going through. Help is available in many forms, so don’t get discouraged or think you and your significant other can’t overcome addiction together.