Loving Someone With Drug Addiction: What Can You Do To Help?

When you’re in love with an addict, you’ll realize how painful and excruciating is the process of living with them. Their habits can be hard to deal with and you’ll often find yourself falling into despair as well. But in that difficult time, it is not wise to leave your loved ones alone. They need all your support and practical tips to help fight the addiction.

When your loved one is suffering from addiction, you need to bear in mind that it is not a choice or a moral failure, it’s a brain disease. It’s a trying time for you but here are a few things that you can do to help your loved one.

Stand By Them

People don’t change unless and until there’s a strong force; they don’t change till pain of the existing situation becomes unbearable. Same is with addicts, you need to make them realise the pain of addiction. Only then they will try to change. When you make addiction easier for them by driving them around or loaning them money, you’re stopping them from realising that letting go of addiction is a better option. Immediately leaving the drug use can also cause unease and pain, that’s not a solution either. Experts at Lantana Recovery suggest innovative treatments and therapies that will ease the process of leaving drug addictions.

Love Them Differently

When your loved one becomes an addict, you need to love them differently. They’re not the same person anymore and you should come to terms with that. You can’t be too supportive, you need to learn the difference between supporting them and supporting their addiction. You have to be strong and learn to stand your ground. There are times when you can’t say no to them but you need to remind yourself of the repercussions if you don’t say no, and think about what’s best for them. Your support for them as a human will build them. Your support for their drug addictions will tear them down.

Change Their Views About Drugs

All addicts believe that drugs are their survival kit and they can’t survive without their regular dose of drugs. They will make you believe that they can’t function without addiction but you don’t have to fall into prey. You need to convince them that they’re better off without addiction and that they can be whole without it. You can’t change things instantly, but you need to practice patience and meanwhile talk them into seeking help. You strictly need to stop supporting their views for their own betterment and safety.

Stand Your Ground

The more leverage you give them, the more they will manipulate you. This is when you need to stand your ground and stop giving into manipulation. You’ll need to practice patience as it can get on your nerves sometimes. It also sometimes happens that the more you resist manipulation, the worse it gets. And it’s in human nature to try even more for something that doesn’t work out anymore like the way it used to. It may result in rage, illness, pain, and depression but you’ll have to constantly remind yourself that you can’t support their addiction and this is the only way to pull them out of it.

Make Them Strong

You need to bear one thing in mind, that the addicts themselves and their actions are beyond their control and it will always remain like this. Their addiction is so all-consuming that it starts to distort the realities for them. They forget all boundaries, all the wrong-doings don’t feel wrong to them anymore. They keep doing that without realising it’s wrong. Leaving them is not an option. Maintaining a proper relationship when your loved one goes to rehab is necessary for their progress. They will drive their strength from you.

Loving an addict isn’t easy, a lot of strength is required. But when you love them dearly, you stand by them and help them in every way that you can, i.e. by doing what’s best for them. Get some support as soon as you can before things get out of hand.