Coping With An Addicted Loved One
Many individuals will experience the pain and helplessness of watching a loved one suffer at the hands of an addictive disorder at some point during their lives. Addiction is a complicated and destructive disease, one that not only affects the sufferer but dramatically affects everyone involved. If you have a loved one who has been suffering from an addictive disorder of any kind, you are likely wondering what you can do to help them seek the professional treatment they so clearly need and deserve. Above all else, it is absolutely crucial that you understand that at a certain point things are out of your control. As badly as you want your loved one to seek treatment, he or she must first become willing. Fortunately, there are several effective steps you can take to ensure that this happens sooner rather than later.
At Guardian Recovery, we thoroughly understand just how difficult it can be to watch a loved one suffer from a substance abuse or dependency disorder. In fact, the majority of our staff members have helped a loved one through the treatment process themselves. This allows a unique and compassionate perspective – one that we can effectively utilize to help you with your own loved one. An article published in Psychology Today titled, “How Compassion Can Help You Support an Addicted Loved One” explores the importance of understanding and patience. At Guardian Recovery we help you encourage your loved one to seek the help he or she needs while thoroughly educating you on the disease model of addiction and providing you with the resources you need to begin your own personal journey of healing.
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Healing Yourself First
When it comes to getting an addicted loved one into treatment, it is absolutely crucial that you put the majority of your emotional energy into healing yourself. As the saying goes, “You cannot pour from an empty cup,” meaning that if you are not in a good mental and emotional place yourself, it’s going to be difficult for you to truly, authentically be there for anyone else. Of course, we also understand just how emotionally and mentally draining watching a loved one suffer from addiction can be. An article published by Very Well Mind, titled, “How to Help an Addicted Friend or Relative” details the importance of working towards healing yourself before attempting to help anyone else heal. The article also details the importance of building trust, coming from a place of honest compassion and respecting your loved one’s privacy.
The article also suggests that when you are attempting to help an addicted loved one, you are liable to run into several challenges along the way.
These include:
- Your loved one might not believe that treatment is necessary – Addiction is a disease of denial, and it often takes quite some time for someone who is suffering from addiction to admit to themselves – and to others – that they have a problem.
- Your loved one might not want to change his or her behaviors – While it might seem exceedingly apparent to the outside world that the addictive disorder is serious (even life-threatening), the co-occurring denial might prevent your loved one from seeing or recognizing the importance of seeking professional help.
- The fear of perceived consequences might be preventing your loved one from openly seeking treatment – For this reason, if you are going to present treatment as an option, it is important that you also present a list of potential consequence-related fears and why these fears are not entirely valid. For example, your loved one might be afraid of losing his or her job if he or she agrees to attend inpatient treatment. When you present rehab as an option, also say something like, “I know that you must be concerned about what will happen to your job if you take a month off to attend rehab. Legally, you cannot be fired for seeking professional medical help – even when it comes to help for substance abuse.” In addition to offering verbal reassurement, provide documentation that proves the points you are making.
Keep in mind that all of these potential challenges are better handled by a professional with years of addiction treatment experience. At Guardian Recovery we provide professional intervention services. Our on-staff interventionists thoroughly understand situations like these, and they have experienced great success in helping even the most stubborn cases agree to seek treatment on their own terms.
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Seeking Treatment – Potential Options
When it comes to helping your addicted loved one seek treatment, what options do you have? In reality, it will depend on how severe the addictive disorder is and how urgent seeking professional treatment has become. For example, if your addicted loved one has been drinking heavily in the evenings for a little over two months, having a one-on-one conversation could prove effective. If your loved one has been using heroin intravenously for close to a year and has experienced drug-related overdose and other serious interpersonal consequences, a professionally staged intervention is the best option.
At Guardian Recovery Center we recommend taking the following steps in order:
- Have a conversation with your loved one – Make sure that he or she is sober when the conversation takes place. Come from a place of compassion and understanding, never blame or anger. If you need help figuring out exactly what to say, Guardian Recovery can help. Simply call our treatment advisors today and they will help you formulate an effective game plan.
- Identify and present potential treatment options – When you do have a conversation, it is a good idea to have some potential treatment options lined up. Do your own research if you’d like to, but please do not hesitate to call our treatment advisors for advice. They will provide you with a comprehensive list of resources and help you determine which level of clinical care and which type of treatment facility is going to best suit the unique needs of your loved one.
- Stage a professional intervention – If your loved one is not receptive to having an open conversation with you, reach out to Guardian Recovery for more information on staging an intervention alongside one of our licensed and highly experienced interventionists. We offer comprehensive services that include developing a plan of action, carrying it out and getting your loved one into an appropriate level of clinical care as quickly as possible. When it comes to effective addiction treatment, clinical care is essential. An article published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that individuals who have access to treatment and stay in treatment for an extended period of time have high success rates when it comes to staying sober and effectively assimilating back into society.
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Guardian Recovery – Individualized Addiction Recovery
At Guardian Recovery, we offer an unmatched level of clinical care in each and every one of our luxury-style treatment facilities. We serve men and women of all ages in Florida, Maine, New Jersey and all surrounding areas. We provide a wide range of recovery-related services, including medically monitored detox, inpatient/residential addiction treatment, professionally staged intervention services, case management services, family workshops and in-depth aftercare monitoring. If you have a loved one who is in desperate need of quality clinical care, we recommend reaching out to our Treatment Advisors for more information on our intervention services and our family workshops. Addiction is a far-reaching disease – one that greatly affects everyone who is directly involved. Finding quality care for your loved one is only the very first step on the path to healing. In order for recovery to last long-term, all family members must heal individually and simultaneously. For this reason, our comprehensive family therapy program is truly unlike any other. For more information on how to help your loved one and yourself, give Guardian Recovery a call today. We look forward to pointing you in the right direction with compassion and years of professional insight and firsthand experience.Get Started Now
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Disclaimer: Does not guarantee specific treatment outcomes, as individual results may vary. Our services are not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis; please consult a qualified healthcare provider for such matters.
