If your husband, son, daughter, friend, co-worker, or other loved one is suffering from an addiction, you can try the following things to help.
Suffering from an addiction is a difficult part of anyone’s life. If you have been diagnosed as an addict to drink, drugs, or some other thing, you suddenly find your world has become much smaller. You experience guilt and shame, there are few people who know about it, and you don’t want to tell your loved ones. You don’t want to be a burden, so many of us suffer in silence.
In fact, statistics show that only 18% of those in England and Wales that have a problem with alcohol ever bother to seek treatment. We are ashamed, we are dispirited, we do not want to reach out because we don’t want to deal with the stigma. Therefore, it is so vitally important that our loved one’s step in and take up that mantle.
You Have the Power to Help an Addicted Loved One
Whether you know it or not, you have the power to spot an addiction in a loved one and help them to get seen. If you need rehab help, you can find it through our special rehab selection service in England and Wales, but deciding to get them into rehab help is a difficult matter.
Here’s how you can help a loved one suffering an addiction in a few easy ways.
Try Talking First
Before you go over the top with extravagant gestures, you should try sitting them down and talking to them. It may be that a few well-placed words are all it takes for you to turn their lives around. Perhaps the brewing addiction was a cry for help all along, and all they wanted was your attention. This sounds manipulative, but when applied to teenage children who struggle to vocalise their needs, this can be the case.
Approach the matter calmly and when you are alone. Do not approach from a judgemental state of mind. You must appear loyal to them and be a pillar of calm. Let them know that they can approach you when they need you and that you are one their side. Pass on literature that can help them.
If Talking Doesn’t Work?
It’s time to move onto the intervention. An intervention is when we gather together all the people in our loved one’s lives that could help them recover. Arrange a time and place where you all can meet or do your intervention over the internet. Whatever works for you. Each person gathered must agree to be an active participant in the recovery of your loved one. Addiction is lonely and, without the correct help and guidance, it is easy to relapse in recovery. The better the support network, the better the chances of recovery success.
Further Steps Towards Addiction Recovery
If the above points don’t work, all you can do is support the addict without encouraging their addiction. This can be difficult. Strike a fine balance between not giving them money and ensuring they don’t go hungry. It is a path best trodden by the dedicated.