Watching your loved one struggling with addiction or substance abuse and ruining their life is very painful. You will want to help them out and save them from this vicious cycle of addiction. But at times, even though you can see that your loved one need help and support to get through addiction, your loved one may be in a state of denial. They may not be cooperative and may even meet your attempt to help them with resistance.
If you are worried about your loved ones and are feeling hopeless, understand that you can still help them to heal from their addiction. You can provide a gentle nudge towards treatment through proper guidance and providing them with constant support.
1. Learn about the addiction
Before approaching your loved ones or offering them help, you must learn about addiction. Find the type of addiction, its symptoms, and stages of addiction, and also about the types and stages of treatments. Find the best treatments possible and various methods used during the treatment program like the inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments, and aftercare programs that are important for life-long sobriety.
By learning about addiction and its treatments, you are showing your loved ones that you want to help them. This is a way to show that you are trying to understand them and their situation and will act as a bridge to build trust.
2. Find the best treatment for addiction
Before approaching them with support, make sure you find the best treatment for your loved one. A rehab like WhiteSands Alcohol and Drug rehab that will support and provide a healthy environment for your loved ones is the ideal place for them to heal emotionally, mentally, and physically. At WhiteSands Alcohol & Drug Rehab in Florida, the experienced professionals and staffs understand that each individual has different treatment needs and problems. Therefore they provide one-to-one therapy sessions and individual treatment programs to cater to each person’s need.
The Rehab has also come up with a relapse prevention plan and Recovery and Wellness program to identify the pattern and triggering factors that lead to relapse. They have also come up Life Skill guide in an attempt to enable the patients to stay sober even after they return home after treatment.
3. Offer Support
Even though it is natural for you to feel sad and overwhelmed, do not let your emotion take control of you. Do not tell them anything that can make them feel guilty and shame, which can trigger their condition and further push them into addiction. Instead, show your support, provide them with a non-judgmental atmosphere, and make them comfortable. When you provide them with a non-judgemental space, they will open up to you and will be willing to understand your concerns.
Inform them about your opinion of them attending an addiction rehab. Tell them about the various treatment offered by the rehab which can help them overcome addiction.
4. Set boundaries
Even though you want to help and support your loved one get over their addiction, do not cross boundaries. At times, you may feel like interfering in everything and correct them. Refrain from doing this and learn to respect their personal space. If you are interfering too much, they may feel threatened and pressured, which can again push them to addiction.
5. Prepare to face consequences
Keeping boundaries and respecting their privacy doesn’t mean you have to be lenient. It is advised to keep healthy boundaries about addiction and tell them it is important for them to take treatment. They can defend themselves and resist this idea. Still, you need to make a stern decision and show them that you are serious about it.
6. Don’t enable them
When you watch your loved one struggling with addiction, you will feel like doing anything to help them, support them, and give them love. But make sure that you are supporting them to get help for their addiction and not enabling them to continue with their addiction. Keep boundaries. Tell them that you won’t help them in any way that contributes to their addiction like supporting them financially or supporting them to get alcohol or drug. At the time even driving them home after drinking may be a sort of enabling. So, understand the difference between enabling and helping them. Set healthy boundaries and make them understand that you are always available to help them out of their addiction.
7. Get Support for yourself
Watching your loved one struggling through addiction and ruining their life will be painful. It can take a toll on your mental, emotional, and physical health. Therefore it is advised to find time and take therapy sessions and reach out to individual support to ensure that you are healthy and stable. Remember that only when you are healthy and calm, you will be able to help your loved one.
Don’t feel discouraged by watching your loved one’s resistance to getting help and their state of denial. Follow these steps to support them and get them out of their addiction cycle.
