Last Update on May 13, 2016 // Written by Hank No Comments

We all know that addiction can affect all different sort of aspects of your professional life, from dealing with time and money and responsibility, to drug tests and safety issues. But relationships on a personal level are affected as severely, so both the addiction and recovery stages come with certain baggage.

And for men who are interested in dating a woman who is in the recovery stage, or who are looking to date in the process of their personal recovery, there are a number things to consider. The first step is to gain information, either from clinics or from books and journals, and after that there's the matter of counseling. If you're involved in the 12-step program, there's the matter of appropriately gendered sponsorship, and transparency is a key point as well.

Information About People Who Are In Recovery

When it comes to dating, having information about people who are in recovery is the first step. For addicts, this means that self-observation comes from before dating, and for men who want to date women who are or have been addicts, this means gathering the necessary information in advance, to prevent any possible issues during the connection and bonding process.

Read the Books and Journals

Reading books and journals about addiction is going to help every man who interested in getting back into the dating scene. Relationships can be different when there are addictive personalities involved, or with people who have had experiences that are out of normal social circles and behaviors. Reading material that illustrates different experiences can help the connection process happen much more naturally between two people.

Specialized Counseling Will Help

There are always specialized counseling sessions for addicts to attend as well. Certain psychologists will have advanced knowledge of particular techniques to help the addictive personality, and mixed in with the concept of relationships, that kind of unbiased and non-judgmental person in your life can be exactly what you need to make sense of the dating pool that you're throwing yourself into. However, if normal doctors are unable to help the patients, they may refer the patients to a rehab center where specialized doctors, like a suboxone doctor, can help them overcome their addiction problem by prescribing drugs to defeat their heroin or cocaine dependency.

Sponsorship Details for the 12 Steps

A rule of sponsorship in the 12-step program is that you have to have a sponsor that is your same gender. This is specifically in place to help stop the dating issue between an addict and their sponsor, and also to be more of a parallel experience instead of a relationship one.

Transparency Is Key

Transparency is the key when it comes to dating after and during addiction and recovery, for everyone involved in the relationship. Keeping secrets, bottling, lying - these are all ways to keep yourself inside the circle of depression, and always end up somewhere unhealthy. So rather than present yourself as perfect or clean, find a way to tell the truth instead.

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