Addiction impacts all the people involved in that individuals daily life. As a loved one, we want to do all that we can to help but many struggle with finding the right approach when seeking how to help someone with a drug addiction. As professionals in the rehabilitation and treatment of drug and alcohol addictions, we at Long Island Center for Recovery (LICR) have the experience and knowledge over the course of several decades to try help loved ones, family members, and friends get started in the right direction so you can feel confident in the ways to help someone with a drug addiction.
How you start, and the mindset you bring when you enter into a conversation with an individual with a drug or alcohol addiction is imperative. Everyone who struggles with addiction has their own unique story and those around them have their own natural ways of going about things, but the ‘tough love’ or judgmental approaches are not the leading approach to helping someone with a drug addiction. Put yourself in their shoes, many addicted individuals isolate themselves, and many can be suffering from other mental health disorders such as anxiety and/or depression. What they need most as they start their recovery is to feel supported. Enter the conversation with that mindset of support, reassure them of positive outcomes, uplift them with small wins from growth in their decisions, and be there in support for when they’ll need you most.
It may be difficult to get an individual suffering from addiction to want to open up. However, if you come from a place support, it’s important that when they do, they feel listened too. Internally, that individual is struggling, and in some ways, the addictive substances are a safe place, a sense normalcy that is scary for any individual to walk away from. When they open up and take that moment to convey their feelings to you, it’s important that they are truly heard. Cutting them off, explaining contradictions to what they tell you, will all likely lead to them shutting down and retreating back into their isolated addiction. Truly listen, hear their side of things, when you do have the opportunity to respond, repeat what you heard back to them. It’s again, about making the individual you’re trying to help feel supported. These early conversations may open the way to sympathy, understanding, and an array of feelings. Absorb it all in that moment, and only once they feel reassured that you have heard where they are coming from, tell them how their addiction has impacted you.
This should still come from a place of support. It is important that you let them know these two things; you care for them deeply, and that their addiction goes beyond just them. Open up about your experiences, and how this impacts you every day. It may seem obvious to you, but in their isolated addiction, it’s easy for the individual to think mainly of themselves, and the impact their actions have on them, but not necessarily those around them who care for them the most.
When thinking about how to help someone with a drug addiction, the simplest step can sometimes be the most effective. How many projects or ideas do we get in our daily lives that never come to fruition because we never take that next step? Similar to step 2, the individual will let you know when they are ready, but when they are, help them in the research phase. Some may open up to the idea about an inpatient treatment facility such as LICR, others may be open to scheduling a doctor’s appointment with their general practitioner, or even individualized, family, or group therapy sessions, whatever their desire or motivation, the best way you can help is getting involved and providing some leg work to get them over the threshold, make the process easy for them, it’s all about support.
Be as present as the individual will allow you. If you’re local and living close, and the individual you’re trying to help is willing, join in their sessions, attend group therapy discussion, and even be present for initial doctor visits. The goal here is to ensure that they are not in this, and going through treatment alone. Do what you can to make them feel your presence. Get to know their appointment schedules, try to set up time to check-in after pertinent sessions and re-iterate tip number 2, with attentive listening.
The treatment to support the individual you’re trying to help with their drug addiction and the journey to long and lasting sobriety can be extensive. And, an important step through treatment will be replacing the habit of addictive substances (as this was part of the individual’s way of life) with a positive interaction. Hobbies from their past that fell off that can be therapeutic, enriching, and enjoyable to the individual. It could be just another phone call checking in on how some of those enriching hobbies are going, but if your truly are seeking ways to help someone with a drug addiction as they get to this stage in their treatment, join in. If they’re open to it, and want that added support, take on that hobby yourself. It could be crafting, a sport, a book club, or many other forms of positive enjoyment, but new hobby will have better chance of sticking if they have someone to support them.
We hope these 5 tips on how to help someone with a drug addiction, in turn actually help you in supporting the individuals in your life. If you or a loved one needs any additional assistance with addiction treatment services, please reach out to Long Island Center for Recovery at 1-800-344-5427, and we’d be happy to assist you or your loved ones in any way possible.
Posted in: Addiction TreatmentDrug DetoxDrug RehabInpatient Rehab
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