How to be an effective support system for your addicted loved one

When it comes to addiction, the addict is not the only one affected, their loved ones can also be negatively impacted in different ways. Family and friends might experience fallouts with the addicts because of their addiction, and they might be at loggerheads for a long time.

If you have a loved one struggling with addiction, here are some tips to be a support system for them

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Learn about addiction

To help someone who is addicted, you need to have a good understanding of what addiction means. This would help you to understand the reason for some of their behaviors or habits.

Learning more about addiction will also make you more empathetic to their plights because you now understand what they are experiencing.

Encourage and don’t criticize them

One of the mistakes that people make is that they usually criticize addicts and blame them for everything wrong. If something bad happens in the family, all accusing fingers are likely to be pointed at the addict because of their condition. This often makes it difficult for them to accept treatment support.

Attend some sessions with them

When your loved one is in recovery, ensure that you don’t leave them alone. Rather, endeavor to attend some of the treatment sessions with them. This would imply that you care about them, and you want to see them get better.

Don’t enable their addiction

Since you have a good idea of what caused their addiction, you need to help them by taking away things that could trigger it.

You can be more deliberate about knowing the kind of people that they hang out with, or the type of events they attend. Taking these conscious steps will help them remain sober or clean in the long run.

Watch out for yourself

While you try to care for your addicted loved one, ensure that you also take care of yourself. Learn to manage stress by indulging in healthy habits. Do not neglect activities like exercising, vacationing, socializing, getting support, etc.

Helping Your Loved One Fight Off Addiction

Having a loved one who is an addict is painful. You begin to worry and blame yourself for not noticing it sooner, and it becomes a major concern for you. But addiction isn’t the end of a person’s life, there are ways to treat substance addiction.

So, if you find out that your loved one is an addict, the next step is to get help for them. But beyond getting professional help for them, there are things you can go to help them fight off such addiction. This is because as humans we are influenced by those we are constantly around.

If a bad influence caused their addiction, then you can use good influence to fight it off. Know though, that addiction doesn’t always go away easily, but it is not impossible. So, here are some steps to take to help a loved one fight off addiction.

  • Be Compassionate

When dealing with an addict, even a loved one be compassionate. Refrain from blaming or criticizing them, but instead show love and compassion. Remember, that addiction comes for different external factors like stress or trauma. So, treat them with compassion.

  • Expect Difficulties

If you’ve a loved one who is an addict, while helping the person fight off addiction expect difficulties. They might be in denial of their addiction and refuse help. But be patient, supportive, and continue to encourage them to get help.

  • Educate Yourself

To help someone overcome addiction, you need to know what that addiction entails. So, educate yourself on the specific addiction your loved one is facing, the symptoms, challenges, and treatment options available. Then, you can provide better help for them.

  • Do not Enable Them

Constantly offering to drive an alcohol addict home is enabling his/her actions. Help them, but do not offer help that indirectly encourages them to continue their addiction.

  • Take Care of your Mental Health

To help someone struggling with addiction, you’ve to be mental strong and health. So, frequently take time to evaluate your mental health, relax, and care for yourself. This will reduce stress, putting you in a better position to be of help to your loved one.

In summary, loved ones are special to us and when something happens to them, we are always eager to help out. So, if you’ve a loved one who is an addict, the above-mentioned steps will aid you in helping them get off addiction.

Signs That Your Loved One is Addicted

Seeing a loved one become addicted to drugs or alcohol is painful. So, when we see a loved one struggling with the misuse of drugs we often worry if he/she is addicted or not. We must identify addiction early, especially in loved ones so we can help them get treatment early.

Therefore, this article will pinpoint some signs which indicate that your loved one is addicted. Note that these signs cannot be considered alone, but all work together to identify addiction. And although these signs do not apply to all situations of addiction, there is a high chance that it is addiction.

So, these signs of addiction include;

  • Physical Changes

This is the most pronounced sign of addiction. Excessive use of substances and continuous use of such substances causes a person to neglect other aspects of his/her life. Such a person is focused on consuming that drug or alcohol and neglects food, how he/she looks, etc.

So, their physical appearance is affected either by weight loss. Or they begin to look shabby and unkempt due to negligence. If you notice this in a loved one, it could be a sign of addiction.

  • Psychological Changes

An addict also experiences psychological changes. The chemicals in the drugs affect their hormones causing depression, lack of interest in things. Sometimes, they even begin to have frequent mood swings.

  • Performance Reduction

If a loved one begins to have a sudden slump in performance, it could be due to addiction. This can be a performance slump at work or in school, where the person isn’t as efficient as he/she is known to be. So, watch out for this sign in loved ones.

  • Change in Sleeping Habit

Addiction also affects people’s sleeping habits. It causes them to neglect sleep, go long hours without sleep, or oversleep due to excessive fatigue. This is another sign of addiction.

  • Withdrawal

When a loved one begins to withdraw both emotionally and physically from everyone else, it could be due to addiction. They become afraid of rejection and reproach and prefer to hide from everyone. So, they avoid social gatherings and withdraw from friends and family, often abruptly.

These are some signs which indicate that a loved one is addicted. But do not be alarmed at one. Check if the others are present in the person’s behavior and if they are, seek adequate help for him/her.

Helping your loved one combat the addiction stigma

Everyone who is addicted is aware of the stigma attached to it, and this is why they would prefer to keep to themselves. Addicts usually love to be on their own, lost in their own world because they believe no one can understand them.  

If you want to help your loved one to defeat addiction, they must be first helped to deal with the stigma. Stigma are set of beliefs that are not based on facts. People who are stigmatized often fall for these beliefs and not often do they get someone to properly explain to them.

When addiction stigma is in play, the individual would not want to accept his or her addiction. And this is a determining factor for addiction treatment.

The addicted individual needs to acknowledge his or her addiction in order to foster addiction treatment. The only way to defeat stigma is by educating people.

People need to be properly informed on the concept of addiction. When they are informed, it would help in preventing hasty generalizations and myths. Having good knowledge about addiction is key and when it is absent, it could be disastrous.

It is important to also educate your loved one on the full concept of addiction. Doing this will require you to do some research but it is usually worth it.

You will be helping them ahead of their addiction treatment session where they would be duly informed about what is plaguing their lives.

Someone who is addicted can still have their lives on track, and addicts need to hear this often. Once addicts are encouraged that they can have a clean bill of health, it helps them to keep focus. And it serves as a motivation for them to follow through with the addiction treatment process to the very end.

Helping your loved one combat addiction stigma could be one of the best gifts to give them, because they need it to recover fully.

The Addiction stigma

Anyone who is addicted to either substances or behaviors is usually stigmatized, and the society takes the full blame for this.

Stigma is a negative belief system that the society or a group of people hold about a particular entity. It is believed that when the society frowns at something, anyone associated with it would be downtrodden.

The issue of stigmatization is fully present in the addiction process. The society failed to realize that an individual’s addiction is not necessarily their fault. If we were to name one of the factors that makes us human, it is our vulnerability to addiction. And proper study has shown it is no fault of ours.

However, the society greatly frowns at addiction. And rather than provide help, they exhibit prejudice, assumptions and the likes towards people who are addicted. In the process, some of these individuals have driven themselves to the edge.

The fact is stigma is not based on facts. Rather it is hinged on myths, hasty or well-thought out generalizations, assumptions and the likes. And the only way to prevent this from happening is to properly educate people.

When people are aware of the concept of addiction, they would not be quick to jump into conclusions.

Also, they would be able to help out those who are addicted and make sure they get back on track with their lives. The adverse impact of stigmatization is best reduced or prevented when education is in play.

One of the strongest reasons why people do not open up about their addiction problem is the stigma attached to it. They have the conviction that once they tell people about their problem, it would be heard on the lips of other people.

Getting people to accept their addiction is often the hardest phase. But, once they can acknowledge their addiction problem, it becomes easy to provide help for them. People who are addicted need to be treated with care, love and not prejudice.  

Alternatives to Stigmas

stigma alternativeOn the opposite end of the spectrum from stigma is the glamorization of addictions and disorders. This is a rarely talked about phenomenon because it seems so contradictory. Most people would reason that there is surely nothing about mental disorders or addictions that is glamorous, but some portrayals of these conditions would suggest otherwise. Hollywood and other sources of popular media have found ways of portraying disorders and addiction in a good connotation, such as normalizing them or even romanticizing them; a trend that should be reversed if these issues are going to be represented accurately.

There are many instances in the media and in popular culture when mental disorders and addictions are portrayed as the new standard of normal. We have all been through rough parts of town and observed groups of people who are clearly living lives governed by their addiction and disorders. What we don’t realize is that these people make up large communities that foster the belief that their way of life is normal and common. Their sense of healthy living has been fictionalized. Much of this mindset can be attributed to portrayals of addiction and disorder in the media. Many characters and archetypes of addiction and disorder in popular media treat these conditions very casually and over represent their commonality and acceptability.

Many media portrayals and celebrity lifestyles even romanticize addictions and disorders. Often, characters in films or personas in music make copious amounts of substance abuse and pleasure activities seem cool, mysterious and rewarding. Protagonists in films are frequently characters who struggle with some type of mental disorder and the choices they make under the influences of their disorder may be glorified or justified. In the sixties, there were many young actors and musicians who checked themselves into mental health treatment facilities because it was the “in thing” to be unstable, pensive and brooding.

All of these portrayals are unfortunate and unhealthy. We need to embrace disorders and addictions for what they are: something that makes a person’s life harder, and something that person should work to recover from, with support. The best thing we can do as a society for addictions and disorders is truly understand how they work through education and literacy.

Addiction Treatment and Healing Instead of Stigmas

treatment for addiction and disorderMental health professionals have long recognized that the stigmatization of people with addictions and mental disorders actually worsens their condition. They are already in a fragile mental and emotional state trying to make sense of the world, but when stigmatization is piled on top of that in the form of judgmental words or ignorant opinions, they often do not have the clarity to process these opinions properly. Sensitivity and insecurity are marked traits of people with addictions and mental disorders. Stigmatization is taken to heart by people battling these conditions, and are interpreted as an affirmation of their fears and insecurities.

The reversal of this ugly scenario is, of course, educating the public on how to understand and treat people with addiction and mental disorder. Awareness needs to develop of what these conditions are and are not. They are considered a mental health disease, and take the same amount of time and energy to recover from as do medical diseases. They are chemical in nature and are caused in part by a person’s genetics and biochemistry, not their behavior and their decision making alone. They are not an excuse, a crutch or a character flaw and they should not be treated like something that is easily remedied. They are highly complex and require professional examination.

Along with a more compassionate, understanding cultural stance on these matters, the other thing that must change is the availability of treatment for addiction and mental disorders. Treatment resources exist, but a majority of people who need them are not accessing them. This is for several reasons. First of all, many people simply do not know that they are available, or know so little about them that they are intimidated by them. Secondly, many people simply cannot afford them due to inadequate health care coverage. This is only beginning to change thanks to recent legislation, but there is still a long way to go before everyone has access to the mental health treatment they need.

The Need to Change Social Stigmas

change social stigmasThe need to change social stigmas around addiction and mental disorder is dire. One in three people lives with either of these conditions, and the avoidance of the matter in our culture is making the situation worse, not better. Addiction and mental disorder make it nearly impossible for a person to feel secure in anything they experience. Their feelings of instability make functioning like everyone else incredibly difficult, but they still try to very regularly. A majority of people who are struggling with a mental disorder or an addiction are not receiving treatment for it, either because they do not know what is available to them or because they do not want to appear weak. This attempt to get by in the world without the mental health that is necessary to cope with it makes a person very susceptible to setbacks and hardships. The last thing this person needs is to be labeled as useless, damaged, dysfunctional or a throw away person. Being exposed to opinions like this can only make things worse.
If we were to stop and question our judgmental behavior, we would understand just how detrimental stigmatizing a person with addiction or a mental disorder is. It is wrong to place judgment on anyone, but when it is done to a person who is already insecure and unstable, recovering from the judgment is going to be much more difficult. Addicts and people with mental disorders are commonly high functioning and intelligent. Even those who are in denial are aware at some level of how different they are from other people. To be aware of your condition is to doubt your own perception frequently, and ignorant criticisms of a person who does not have the self esteem to deflect such estimations is likely to believe them. Intolerance is alive and well within our culture, and many of us are accustomed to thoughtlessly passing judgment or speaking negatively about someone we do not understand. It is time we take care not to pass judgment on people with addictions and mental disorders. We do a disservice to them and to ourselves by not lending compassion to the situation.

The Social Stigmas Around Addiction and Mental Disorders

negative social stigmasAddictions and mental disorders are hard enough to cope with. Adding a stigmatization on top of them only makes functioning harder for those who are struggling with either of these illnesses. Yet, a vast majority of people who are struggling with these conditions have claimed that they feel stigmatized by peers, family, coworkers, social circles and society at large. It cannot be denied that stigmatization has a harmful effect on people, particularly when it has to do with a mental health issue. When someone who is struggling to control an addiction or a mental disorder feels stigmatized, stereotyped or judged, it only serves to make their condition worse because their condition is essentially an inability to cope. We must change the way we assess and speak about people with disorders and addictions in order to help relieve them of their suffering.
The stigmas that addicts and people with mental disorders bare are ones that many people are already aware of. Addicts get labeled as bums, helpless, out of control, having no self control, degenerates and detriments to society. People with mental disorders get labeled as crazy, psychotic, mentally disturbed, dysfunctional and not suitable to have a relationship with. The pain that is caused by these labels is severe. Bringing an addict or a person with a mental disorder to the point where they are ready to admit they need help, and are able to reach out for help, takes immense strength and courage on their part. When someone who does not know them personally comes along and labels them as damaged goods, it can make them retreat back into a dark place and abandon the progress they were making. When someone fragile is made to feel ashamed of their fragility and their other faults, they are in danger of shattering. The way our culture has come to attack addiction and mental disorder instead of support it and care for it is part of the reason it is prevalent.

People Who Live with Addiction and Mental Disorders

living with addiction and mental disorderIf you are not personally effected somehow by the existence of mental disorders or addiction, you are in the minority. As much as a third of the North American population has an addiction or a mental illness, which means that almost everyone is personally connected to someone who struggles with one or both of these conditions. When you think about how prevalent conditions like these are, you will realize how inappropriate it is that so much stigmatization, labeling and stereotyping of addicts and those with mental disorders still takes place in our culture. Even though we are informed on how frequently these things effect individuals, we still turn a blind eye when we should be educating ourselves further on how to be more accepting of it.

The truth about people with addictions and disorders is that they have a disease, it is a deeply ingrained problem, it is impossible for them to change overnight and they require support and encouragement in order to heal. Mental health conditions are more evasive than physical conditions, and treating them is not always an exact science. Counselors require many years of training in order to be qualified to assess a person’s mental health. Because a person’s psyche has constantly been evolving since they were born, no two people have identical cases of addiction or mental disorder. This means that a counselor can never perfectly map out a person’s problems, but rather equip them with the resources to understand their own thinking and behavior, then teach them the tools to change their thinking and behavior.

Addiction and mental disorders alike have been determined by the medical and mental health community to be a condition that is detectable on a neurological and biochemical level. Treating them actually involves the process of rewiring a person’s neural network in order to reprogram their ways of thinking and behaving. Patience, encouragement, understanding and acceptance are what is needed to help a person struggling with an addiction or disorder get to a mentally healthy place.