Love is a drug. Love can make you high. Several songs compare love and sex to drugs that have intoxicating effects.

It makes sense. Love, sex, and drugs and alcohol all make us feel good physically and mentally. They all stimulate feel-good chemicals in the brain. If former addicts have eliminated drugs and alcohol from their lives, they might want to find relationships to create the good feelings that drugs and alcohol once produced.

But treating relationships in this way isn’t healthy. For one, these relationships seem like one person is using the other person. Do the former addicts truly want to be with the person because of the other person’s qualities? Or are they only with the other person because they provide sex and other benefits? Relationships are supposed to be two-sided, but this type of relationship seems very lopsided.

Former addicts who start new relationships right after rehab also have to consider other things. For one, they have to consider what will happen when the relationship changes. While new relationships can be intoxicating, these strong feelings usually subside and change. What happens when the initial rush is gone? Will former addicts break up and try to find new relationships to produce these strong feelings again?

Former addicts might also want to consider what will happen if their relationships end. This is one of the reasons why addicts should continue to work on their recoveries and the way they handle problems without drugs and alcohol. This way, if their relationships end, the emotional turmoil of the breakups won’t trigger their drug and alcohol abuse.

Love, sex, and addiction all produce physical and emotional sensations. Recovering addicts have the difficult task of dealing with these sensations in new, substance-free ways. If they commit to their recoveries and consider why they want relationships and other things in their lives, they have a better chance at creating healthy lives and relationships.