It can be difficult watching someone you love struggle with addiction. Addiction can hurt nearly all areas of your life, from your relationships to your physical and mental well-being, and more. Sometimes, it can be hard to know how to help someone with addiction, especially without coming across as judgmental. In this article, you’ll learn more about how to help someone with addiction to effectively help them progress along their recovery.
At Hammocks on the Edisto, we are a top-rated women’s drug rehab that offers tailored treatment to help you safely achieve long-lasting sobriety. We provide a comprehensive range of addiction therapies so you can receive the right care to help you break free from addiction and lead a healthier, happier life. Ready to start your recovery journey? Contact us today!
5 Ways to Help Someone with Addiction
Addiction is a debilitating disease that can hurt your health, relationships, and overall quality of life. If you know someone struggling with addiction, below are ways to help someone with addiction.
1. Create an Open, Judgment-Free Space
First, it’s important to establish an open, judgment-free space so the individual struggling with addiction feels comfortable talking about their addiction with you. Often, many people struggling with addiction may isolate, hide, or deny their addiction, especially around their loved ones. Therefore, it’s critical you maintain a judgment-free space so the individual you are trying to help feels safe talking about their addiction with you.
2. Learn About Addiction
Next, in order to help someone with addiction, you should also learn about addiction yourself. All too often people develop misconceptions about addiction. Addiction is a brain disease, and recovery is life-long. Consider educating yourself more about addiction so you can better understand what the individual you are trying to help is going through.
3. Eliminate Any Enabling Behaviors
Next, it’s essential to understand that you need to eliminate any enabling behaviors that may be fueling that individual’s drug addiction. For example, some enabling behaviors can look like loaning someone money or allowing them to stay at your home without working or contributing to the household. It’s critical to establish boundaries and eliminate enabling behaviors that may be fueling that person’s addiction.
4. Encourage Seeking Professional Help
Helping someone with an addiction doesn’t mean you are solely responsible for helping them get sober. However, you can be a supportive friend or family member and help encourage that individual to seek professional help. An addiction treatment center will ensure the individual is able to safely and effectively overcome their addiction.
5. Understand Addiction Recovery Is Life-Long
Last but not least, when helping someone with addiction, it’s critical to understand that addiction recovery is life-long. It’s important to be supportive throughout an individual’s recovery journey. While you should again not feel responsible for helping someone get sober all on your own, you can help them along their recovery journey so they feel cared for and supported. This can look like holding the individual accountable to maintain their sobriety or helping that individual find a drug rehab to get clean.
Help Is Available
As you can see, knowing how to help someone with addiction is beneficial for a range of reasons. Not only is it important to create a safe, judgment-free space for the individual to feel comfortable talking to you about their addiction struggles, but it’s also important you educate yourself about addiction and know what to say/ how to encourage that individual to seek professional treatment.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, it’s critical you seek professional support to better manage your symptoms. At Hammocks on the Edisto, we offer a broad range of treatment options to ensure you receive the right care to best support your recovery journey. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you lead a healthier, happier quality of life.
