When an alcoholic or addict gets sober, nearly every aspect of their life will change. Old behaviors will be done away with and new skills will be learned. One of the most important of these skills is communication.
Many people who enter drug and alcohol rehab facilities arrive with communication skills that are, at best, unhealthy and ineffective. Usually, this is the result of already lacking skills that have been further hampered by years of drug and alcohol abuse. Most addicts and alcoholics have many issues at play in their disease; the drinking and using are but symptoms. When one enters treatment and receives help from a group of professionals, the other contributing elements become more readily apparent.
Once an alcoholic or addict make a choice to enter treatment and begins to uncover the deeper reasons why they began and continued using, they are able to see where they used drugs and alcohol to help us communicate by lowering our inhibitions or to prevent us from communicating by medicating our feelings. By discarding old behaviors investing time and focus to learning new ones, alcoholics and addicts are able to learn to communicate in ways that are loving and kind, healthy and effective. After spending time in a drug rehab focusing on learning new skills, when the addict or alcoholic returns home, the family is often amazed that they are even talking to the same person who left them to seek treatment. It is not a change that happens overnight but it is a change that begins once a choice is made to seek help.