Can Your Relationship Survive Active Addiction?

Can Your Relationship Survive Active Addiction?

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This straight-talking episode of *Recovery Recharged with Ellen Stewart, Pushy Broad from the Bronx* tackles a tough question head-on: **can your relationship survive active addiction?** Ellen, a certified life and recovery coach with 39 years clean and sober, breaks things down in her trademark no-nonsense style. She answers common questions about what addiction does to trust, money, intimacy, safety, and mental health for both partners.

Her stance on trust is blunt: “Someone in active addiction cannot be trusted… trust is earned. It takes time.” You’ll hear her describe how constant lies, missing money, secret debts, and even vanished valuables can tear apart a couple’s financial future. She talks about intimacy fading as alcohol and drugs take priority, leaving one partner repeatedly alone at family events and social occasions.

Ellen also tackles the harder topics many people avoid: abusive behaviour when someone is drunk or high, the impact on children who sense the chaos at home, and the emotional toll on the non-addicted partner who ends up feeling like a caretaker or “extra parent”. Her message is firm: you’re not meant to live as a martyr, and “you are not helping” if you keep bailing the addicted partner out.

Throughout the episode, she stresses the importance of professional help and support systems like Al-Anon, as well as learning about codependency and enabling. She’s clear that relationships **cannot** stay healthy in active addiction, but emphasises that they *can* rebuild after someone commits to recovery: once the addiction is addressed, love, support and boundaries can start to repair trust and emotional connection.

If you’re wondering whether to stay, go, or support someone in recovery, this episode offers straight answers and tough questions that might help you decide what’s truly best for you and your family.