Contrary to what your partner, friend or family member may believeâ?¦absolute honesty is not always the best policy for developing communication skills.
It is not in your best interest, nor is it in the best interest of relationships, to discuss the detailed behaviours in your past lifestyle when doing so may result in the possible destruction of the relationship or your self-esteem.
Your mother does not need to know the details of every time you stole money out of her purse in the past.
Your partner does not need to know the details of every sexual encounter you ever had; they need to know you are going to get tests for sexually transmitted diseases because your addiction caused you to exhibit poor judgment.

As in all things in life, communication about the past requires a balanced approach, enough but not too much.

Lying or avoidance is not the goal either.
It is possible to be honest, and share only what you feel comfortable sharing while maintaining your pride and dignity.
It involves requesting respect for your privacy and the support to pursue your sincere desire to change your life.
Those who truly care about you and your recovery will respect your emotional boundaries when it comes to your past addiction lifestyle. (http://www.understandingsexualaddiction.org/pridelessons/pride_00o.asp)

So the same rules pretty much apply to your family. Go slow and be cautious in revealing everything in your past and in what you discovered in drug rehab. Stress the future and what you are trying to do. If you are doing the work to make fundamental changes in your life after coming out of rehab, everyone will see it. You don’t have the discuss rehab, the results will speak for themselves. Leaving drugs and alcohol behind permanently will do most of the talking for you.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 21st, 2005 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Drug Addiction, Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.