Fighting Drug Addiction in Your Family
Living with the drug and alcohol addiction of a family member can be devastating. The inclination is to help them, to cover for them and to continue to rescue them when they suffer consequences for their drug addiction.
This never helps. If you love someone who is struggling with addiction, here are the top five things you can do to help them and help yourself.
Fight Drug Addiction in Your Family: Learn About Addiction and Treatment
Learning about what defines addiction, how it is treated and how to get your loved one help will assist you in truly helping your family member fight drug and alcohol addiction. You can learn the symptoms of drug addiction, the different treatment options available and how to do an intervention so that your loved one can more quickly choose the help that he or she needs.
Fight Drug Addiction in Your Family: Don’t Enable Your Loved One
Enabling your loved one can be as minor as calling into work for him or her when they’re too hung over or high to make it on time. It can be as major as paying to fix the car or their legal bills when they get into an accident while driving under the influence. Big or small, do not buffer your loved ones from the consequences of their addiction. Protecting them from it only ensures that they will do it again.
Fight Drug Addiction in Your Family: Don’t Ask for Promises
It’s understandable that you want to confront your loved one about his or her choices concerning drugs and alcohol. You want them to stop doing things that will hurt them and start making better choices. You may think that asking them to promise not to get high or drink again is a good choice. It isn’t. You’ll get one of two things: brushed off or “yessed” to death. Either way, nothing was ever accomplished by extracting promises from an addict.
Fight Drug Addiction in Your Family: Don’t Make Idle Threats
When your family member is living with active cocaine addiction, heroin addiction, marijuana addiction, prescription drug addiction or a combination of addiction and psychological issues, they’re going to do things that make you angry. You’ll blow up. You’ll scream and yell. You’ll slam doors. You’ll make threats. And the next day, everything will be exactly the same.
Don’t waste your time or your energy. Getting upset and screaming and making idle threats you won’t follow through on will only serve to prove to your family member that they can continue to use and you will continue to do nothing but get upset.
Fight Drug Addiction in Your Family: Focus On Yourself
Constantly worrying about, caring for and covering for your loved one leaves you tired, out of money and out of time. The first step in getting your life back when a loved one is living with addiction is not saving them from themselves but saving yourself. Step back from the situation and take a little time for you. Talk to a personal therapist with drug addiction treatment experience. Get some perspective. And then move forward and take the steps that you need to take to free yourself from the drug addiction of your family member.
Drug Addiction Treatment at Michael’s House
If you would like to secure a spot for your loved one at drug addiction treatment, contact us at Michael’s House today. We can help you stage an intervention and help you help your loved one. Call now.
