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Toxic Ties: Risking Relapse by 60%

11 Nov 2024 · 1 min

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In this YouTube segment, Amber Hollingsworth explains that having just one toxic relationship can increase a person’s risk of relapse into addiction by more than 60%. She references the common recovery mantra to change your "people, places, and things" (also phrased as "playmates, playgrounds, and playthings"), emphasizing that altering one’s everyday environment—avoiding certain locations and distancing from specific individuals—is a core strategy for sustained sobriety. While the principle is clear, Amber highlights the practical difficulty of implementing it when the toxic connections involve family members or long‑time friends, making the decision to cut ties emotionally complex and often harder than cutting ties with casual using buddies.

Chapters

Having just one toxic relationship in your life increases your risk for relapse over 60%. Yes, 60%. That's crazy to think about. We've all heard that you need to change your people, places, and things. That's a really common recovery saying. Sometimes people say playmates, playgrounds, and playthings. Basically, it's like you're going to have to change your everyday environment. You're going to have to stop going certain places. You're going to have to stop hanging out with certain people. And we can all easily see why that's so important, but it's not as easily done as we wish that it were because some of these relationships are a little bit more complicated than just a using buddy. Sometimes these relationships are family members. Sometimes these relationships are like long lifetime friends.