Hi Talia.. After reading your post I realized that you have a great point. If the person is already in active recovery, then distance is probably not what they need.
I think its mostly when the addict isn't really actively recovering, but rather struggling for a long time, that it may be a good option to distance yourself, especially if you had noticed no progress in a long time as that could mean the addict hasn't really made up their mind to recover.
I think its in that circumstance that staying with the addict is not really helping them, but possibly rather enabling them in some sort of way which can be detrimental to them in the long run.
I guess mostly this applies to the situation where the addict doesn't seem to be taking recovery seriously.. staying with the addict in this type of situation, i believe, can be a form of enabling... they dont feel like they are going to lose you despite their addiction and so they aren't getting to that point where they feel like they need to quit using.