Regardless of how you feel about addiction, when someone you love is addicted to drugs or alcohol, you may experience feelings of sympathy, guilt, and self-responsibility. All of these are normal emotional responses. However, those feelings often lead to enabling behaviors, which do everything to support the addiction instead of the addicted. In order for the loved one to gain and keep their sobriety, families and friends have to recognize and put an end to detrimental behavior.
Enabling Behaviors
* Taking or assigning responsibility for the drug addiction.
Constantly placing blame on past experiences, current stresses, and other people reaffirms the addicts behavior and keeps the addict from recognizing that drug use is a choice. Those who are addicted can choose to get treatment and live better lives.
* Giving an addict money for life expenses
Drug use is the cause of an addict's inability to pay for housing, food, utilities and other bills. When you pay an addict's bills, you are effectively paying for their drugs. Some drug users will not pay their expenses and will use the money to buy drugs.
* Allowing an addict to live with you
Nobody wants to see a loved one on the street, but when you take them in because they "have nowhere else to go", you are inviting their choices and behaviors into your home and denying them the chance to fall. Most addicts have to hit rock bottom in order to seek out the help they need.
* Taking responsibility for their legal problems.
Some of these enabling behaviors include posting bail, offering false alibis, paying for legal and court fees, or allowing them to live with you while on probation.
Work Together to Stop Enabling Behaviors
The only way to help an addict is to let them deal with the consequences of their actions. For this to work, every family member and friend must agree to stop the enabling and they must be steadfast in their agreement.
The final step is to call an intervention specialist and set up a time for all close friends and family to discuss details. This meeting underlines the significance each loved one has in a successful intervention and prepares them for the confrontation that will follow. Each person will let the addict know they are putting a stop to enabling behaviors so he or she will take advantage of all the benefits of addiction treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment