How To Handle Friends Dealing With Drug and Alcohol Addictions
It may not be your sister or your best friend, but maybe the cocaine addict, heroin addict, alcoholic or meth addict in your life is still close to you. You have watched them slowly, or quickly, hit that downward slide from drug abuser or recreational user to drug abuser to addict. You have commented, if jokingly, on how much they drink or get loaded. You may have gotten in fights with them about some of their questionable or dangerous actions under the influence. It’s clear to everyone who knows your friend that drugs and alcohol are a focus and a problem. Is it your responsibility to do anything about it?
Help a Friend with Addiction: Abandonment isn’t Necessary
If you haven’t done so, try talking to your friend seriously about the problem he or she has with drugs and alcohol. Point out a few concrete examples where his choice to get loaded or drunk hurt him or someone else. Let him know that you care about him and want him to get better, that you aren’t judging him for his behavior. Explain that you know that drug addiction is a disease and that it’s important to get help to stop.
Remember, it is dangerous for those with co-occurring medical disorders, obesity or a high dosage prescription painkiller addiction to detox without medical supervision. Do not recommend that your friend quit using cold turkey. It is essential that they go to a certified drug detox and addiction treatment facility to ensure their safety.
Help a Friend with Addiction: Talk to Someone Close to Them
If you feel that you may not be close enough emotionally to someone dealing with drug and alcohol addiction to be the one who begins the intervention process, then consider talking to someone who is. Their best friend, partner, spouse, or family member may have the same concerns that you do and want to do something about it. Choose someone who isn’t actively addicted to drugs and alcohol as well and approach the subject delicately. If the person you choose is in denial over the state of their loved one’s addiction, then you may be rewarded for your efforts with a hostile response. Don’t take it personally. Consider talking to someone else who is close to your friend or moving forward alone.
Help a Friend with Addiction: Stage an Intervention
If talking to your friend and those who are closer to him about his addiction does not work, consider staging an intervention. Gather together those who also want to help the addict in your life to heal. Have everyone speak briefly about events that prove your friend has a problem with drug and alcohol addiction. At the end of the process, invite your friend to immediately enter drug rehab. The person running the intervention should be responsible for finding a place in treatment for your friend to go to right away.
If you don’t feel comfortable running the intervention, you can engage the services of a professional interventionist. Call Michael’s House today for more information or to reserve a spot in our inpatient drug rehab for your friend.
