How To Help An Addicted Loved One

by AdamS on September 26, 2012

Although it clearly influences the addicted person, often times the household feels the effect much more. When coping with someone’s addiction, it is important to look at ourselves and the way we can continue to love and support them without being accountable for their habit or behaviors. It’s important to remember we didn’t cause the addiction, we can’t control it, and we as family members can’t cure it. While addiction interventions can be very helpful, there are other things to keep in mind while caring for your loved one.

Don’t Enable Their Addictive Behavior

It’s normal to love our family members and want to help them. Sometimes, our own unconditional love blinds us. We’d do just about anything to eliminate their pain and take away their addiction, but we must see the situation as it is. We need to quit creating excuses for our loved ones and stop bailing them out of problems. Our loved one has made choices, and they need to manage the consequences. If they don’t need to face the consequences, they won’t see the dilemma. Letting our loved ones know we support them, but not their habit is important. It should be apparent that we are ready should our loved ones determine they’re willing to get help and want a change, but life can’t proceed with their habit.

Don’t Be Over Involved

We can’t fix our loved ones’ issues. Although our loved ones did not bring about their dependency, addiction is something only the addict can change. Yes, they’ll require help with recovery, but they must want the help. We must avoid getting excessively involved in or exceedingly focused on our loved ones’ dependency. We should leave the connection lines open, but only to a certain extent. It is a conclusion that can be difficult to accept, particularly for people who like to mend everything. Addicts need to have a desire and willingness to improve. Most of us can’t make it happen, but we are able to support them while they do it.

Learn How Addiction Has Affected You

Having a practicing addict in our life can be painful and discouraging, and removing ourselves with love can be more than we are able to deal with on our own. Our loved ones’ dependency might have overtaken how we live, but it is important to continue living. It is important for us to understand that what other people are doing, contemplating or even feeling is none of our business. Precisely what is our business is what we are doing; thinking and feeling. It’s very difficult to live with addiction, and a Twelve-Step program will help us focus on ourselves in a balanced way, getting us out of codependency and thus giving us our lives back. To get help with how to carry out an intervention, go to https://www.thewatershed.com/resource/intervention-services/.

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