Communication skills, like any other set of skills, need to be built or developed over time. They don’t occur naturally. Addiction can cause many problems within a family dynamic or personal relationships and make it difficult to communicate effectively, especially if you lack healthy communication skills in recovery.
Communication Skills in Addiction Recovery
The right type of rehab program will help you develop communication skills in recovery, skills that you can continue to use long after leaving your treatment center.
Communication is a conversation between multiple people and it contains verbal and nonverbal parts. When one party doesn’t send a clear message or the other party doesn’t send a clear message, breakdowns can happen. Similarly, breakdowns can happen when one party doesn’t fully understand the message.
How Addiction Harms Communication
Communication breakdowns can often happen as a result of drugs or alcohol, both of which can make it less likely that individuals send or receive messages correctly, let alone receive messages correctly. Lack of sleep, poor self-esteem, intense emotions, distractions, and other issues can also impede your ability to correctly communicate.
How to Healthy Communication Skills in Recovery
In order to develop good communication skills in addiction recovery it’s essential that you recognize what the most common roadblocks are and how you can overcome them.
Assumptions
One of those roadblocks is assuming that other people understand you very clearly. When you assume, those assumptions might be that everyone has gone through something you are going through or everyone understands something you were talking about. This could be as simple as understanding certain words that you use or slang terminology.
Symptoms of Assumptions: In communication, this assumption can lead to feelings of frustration or anger especially when someone feels like they aren’t understood.
Fix-it Tip: If someone doesn’t understand what you are talking about, be patient with them and be ready to clarify in a new way. Take time to identify signs that what you are saying isn’t quite understood, even if it’s as simple as asking someone if they understand you.
Mind-Reading
Another roadblock is assuming that people will identify with you or offer sympathy. Sometimes, we think that if people genuinely care for us, they will be able to read our minds or that it’s their responsibility to know how we are feeling.
This can leave you vulnerable to miscommunication and hurt feelings because someone else doesn’t respond the way you want them to or expect them to.
Symptoms of Mind-Reading: In communication, mind reading is when you say things like “They should have known I was upset” or “If they really cared, they would have known that I was depressed.”
Fix-it Tip: Even if someone loves you to the best of their capacity, they can’t read your mind all the time, so use I-statements to be clear about the things you need or how you feel.
Poor Listening
Sometimes, the roadblock to healthy communication skills in recovery is on the receiving end. It is not uncommon to get distracted by your own thoughts or by things in the room. The problem is when you get distracted while you are supposed to be listening to someone else.
When you don’t properly listen or let someone else finish their thought, they can feel insulted, angry, or even frustrated.
Symptoms of Poor Listening: When you get distracted you might interrupt someone which won’t let them finish their sentence and this can lead to confusion or misunderstandings, but it can also leave the other person feeling insulted.
Fix-It Tip: Getting better at listening is to practice. Try to catch yourself before you interrupt someone and really concentrate on what they are saying. If you genuinely know that you’re unable to listen or unwilling to listen because you are in the middle of something else, use the I-statements to clarify things like, “I can’t concentrate right now because I’m in the middle of placing an order for groceries. Can we talk in a few minutes?”
Learn Communication Skills in Addiction Recovery with Multi-Concept Recovery
At Multi-Concept Recovery, we offer mental health treatment and addiction recovery programs, both of which help you develop healthy communication skills in recovery. Through things like group therapy sessions you’ll learn how to communicate more effectively and have ample time to practice good communication skills like listening and I-statements with other members of the group.
Reach out to our admissions team today to start your recovery and get help with healthy communication skills.
