How To Help Someone Who Is Battling Addiction
Watching someone go through an addiction is heartbreaking. You see the turmoil it is taking on their life and how it impacts their work, relationships, physical and mental health.
Addiction is something that impacts millions of people throughout the United States alone. Addiction, for everyone involved, is a completely overwhelming experience to go through.
If you know someone going through addiction, you might ask yourself these questions over and over again:
How could this happen?
What signs did I miss in the early days of their addiction?
Could I have done something differently?
How could it get this far?
Unfortunately, there will likely never be a straight answer to any of those questions. After all, addiction is a very complex situation that involves many different factors.
You can try to move forward and help them win their fight against addiction. Here are just a few ways.
Don’t Enable Them
You want to make them feel better, even if it is only temporary. People who enable others with addiction aren’t doing so from an “I don’t care” perspective. Rather, from the perspective, “I don’t know how to help, and I care too much. I just want them to feel okay.”
You don’t have to give someone their substance of choice or give them money for their drugs to enable them directly. Enabling can also give them money when they “need it to cover their bills.” Or by taking them to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. You know they go through a difficult time without their substance of choice, and you don’t want to see it.
However, all this allows them to continue or supports them down the path they are on. In the future, I may write an entire article on what it means to “Detach with love” and to stop enabling with healthy boundaries and communication.
Don’t Blame Them
You might not understand their battle with addiction. However, you should never blame them solely for going through this. Despite the common misconception, nobody sets out to have a battle with substances. It is not a personal choice that someone wakes up one day and says, “It seems like a good idea to get addicted to drinking or drugs.” (We have two podcast episodes dedicated to addiction and how it progresses psychologically and biologically- check them out for further understanding here: The Science Behind Addiction: Debunking Myths and Exploring Reality/ Uncovering the Truth About Addiction: The Solution to Recovery)
Addiction often starts innocently enough. A way to relax after work. An activity to destress from the everyday stressors of life. Until it morphs into something else completely.
Show Them Support
Mental health is something that massively suffers deeper into a person’s addiction. Mental health issues such as anxiety or depression can cause addiction and completely exasperate the disorder altogether.
You might not be able to see a mental health disorder, but you can certainly pick up on signs of it. Be their support system. Show them that you still love them at the end of the day. You might not support or love the decisions that they are making, but you can still show you care for them. You can support their recovery but not their addiction.
When someone goes into recovery, having a strong support system behind them can make all the difference in the world.
Help Them Make Decisions On Where To Start
If they have shown interest in getting help with their addiction, it will be important for their support systems to be there. Determining the best treatment facilities, the right type of facility (in-person or outpatient), and many other factors is overwhelming.
There’s a lot to weigh in on and decide. But helping them throughout this process might be the difference between finding success with recovery or throwing them into a relapse.
If you know someone suffering from a substance abuse disorder, contact us for addiction counseling. Together, we can help you and your loved one with a game plan to go forward.
If you are ready to learn more about addiction counseling, reach out to us to begin.