Tag: dealing with addiction

4 Tips For Friends and Family Living With A Drug Addict

Ezra Evans 2017-01-07 0

Drug addiction is a disease. Unlike natural ailments, this disease presents a battle that is not easily won. As such, all stakeholders involved should be actively involved in fighting the addiction. This could be family or friends working with professionals from rehab centers to advance Addiction Treatment to the patient. However, as family members are striving to help these individuals overcome addiction, some of them end up making mistakes.

Tips

Understand the addictdrugs

The first step one should make when living with an addict is to understand their situation. Thus, speak to them in a supportive and non-confrontational way. As you are doing this, you should express feelings and not blame games. Moreover, you can intelligently talk to them about their behavior change by drawing positives from their sober past and contrasting them with the current situation.

Give the addict a chance to change

As much as you would like to see your loved one sober up, it is advisable to create an enabling environment to change. However, this depends on the degree of addiction or the substance they are addicted to. For instance, the best way to help an alcoholic is to engage them and let them see the need to change. If they are not willing to submit, you should make a point of withdrawing the enabling environment that makes them indulge. This could be by eliminating finances and other things that make those drugs accessible to them.

Involve other family members and friends

As previously highlighted, the fight with drug addiction cannot be won if you decide to make it a personal responsibility. As such, you need to involve family and friends actively. This can be difficult, particularly when dealing addition from hard drugs. However, you need to take responsibility and let others come on board. This will be of great help in creating an enabling environment for change.

Seek Professional Support

woman taking drugWith the damage already done, helping your loved one overcome addiction can be difficult for you. As such, you should seek for external help from therapists and professionals that specialize in helping addicts. In most cases, sending them to a rehab center is ideal considering that close ties between family members and the addicts might be an impediment to the recovery process.

As much as a treatment facility plays a huge role in fighting addiction, acceptance to this condition and willingness to change is equally important. It is only after an individual is willing to change that he or she can fully commit to the treatment, which improves their chances of success.…