How to help a family member with an addiction?

Addictions are physical and psychological alterations that destroy the lives of the people who suffer from them. However, we should not see them as individual problems, since they also significantly harm the family and loved ones around them.

However, just as addictive disorders affect those around the addicted person, these people can also positively influence their treatment by helping to overcome the pathology.

The support of family members is of great importance in cases of addiction, due to the large number of benefits that their help offers and due to the fact that their mere presence works as a therapeutic element in the addicted person.

• Related article: "Family therapy: types and forms of application"

Ways to support a family member with an addiction

There are many ways in which the family of a person with addictions can benefit their treatment and speed up the healing and detoxification process, here are the most usual.

1. Does not treat the subject as a taboo

It is common for families with addiction cases to decide to hide the problem

and treating it as a taboo subject for fear of having to face reality or to avoid bothering the person with the addiction.

Avoiding treating the subject as a taboo will help us avoid misunderstandings and also combat possible prejudices that may exist in the family about the situation they are experiencing. In addition to that, it is also important to combat possible deception or manipulation attempts, something very common in people with addictions.

By talking openly about addiction, we will be able to give the person the help they need and we will be able to convince her that her problem should be treated as soon as possible and put in the hands of a professional.

• You may be interested in: "Assertive communication: how to express yourself clearly"

2. Do not base support on moralizing

Support must be given disinterestedly, without moralizing and without increasing the feeling of guilt of the person who is suffering a case of addiction in his day to day.

It must be clear that addiction is something that goes beyond willpower and that increasing guilt can lead the person to self-sabotage more, further deepening their addiction.

With sincere support and without reproaches, we will get the person to overcome their addiction much sooner and to feel that their family supports them no matter what happens.

• Related article: "What is morality? Discovering the development of ethics in childhood"

3. Encourage him to continue going to therapy

Other advice that the family can follow is to encourage the person and support him to continue going to therapy, as well as to continue doing all the guidelines indicated by the therapists.

Serving as a source of encouragement and motivation in these difficult times is essential, especially on days when the person feels without strength or desire to continue carrying out your detoxification treatment.

4. Make it easy to express yourself

As it happens in any problem or psychological alteration, the expression of worries and feelings in general is of great importance for the person who is suffering; that is why we must ensure that it finds a safe place in your home where you can transmit everything that causes you suffering or discomfort.

Providing support at all times, emotional support in which the person with addictions may need it and actively listening to everything they have to tell us is one of the best supports we can provide.

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5. Assess your progress

Assessing and acknowledging their progress during therapy is also a strong support, as well as an incentive to keep going and not disappoint their own relatives.

Talking about the person's progress both in front of them and to other people also helps a great deal to make the person feel that their efforts are recognized by those around them.

6. Maintain communication with therapists

Maintain good communication with the therapists, asking at all times what we can do from home and what is the point at which we are in the treatment shows that we are involved in the process and that we support our family member at all times.

As numerous studies have shown, the active and continuous support of the family is essential for the correct course and success of the detoxification process.

7. Help promote healthy social relationships

During addiction treatment, it is essential to establish healthy social relationships, as well as breaking those relationships that predisposed to addiction.

That is why the family must help at all times to promote new healthy relationships that have nothing to do with previous consumption or any other type of addiction.

8. Tell us about addiction

Being informed about the nature of the addiction suffered by our family member will also help us to be able to provide them with the addiction they need at all times.

In addition to that, we will learn to offer individualized support taking into account your personal, character and personality characteristics.

• Related article: "Psychoeducation in psychological therapy"

9. Be loving but firm

Professionals specialized in addictions agree that support for people with addictions must be loving and attentive but firm, always establishing clear limits.

This means that if the person lives with us, they must abide by the rules of coexistence of the family, such as daytime and nighttime hours, the rules of cleanliness or coexistence in common.

10. Do not accede to their demands systematically

In this regard, we must bear in mind that people with addictions tend to be very easy to deceive or manipulate their loved ones.

That is why we must never agree to their demands for money or any request made of the addictive substance they need to consume.

11. Cope with denial together

In the early stages of addiction, it is possible that the person follows a strategy of denial of his problem.

It is in these cases when we must join forces with the whole family to help that person to realize the reality and the problem that she presents.

12. Remove the person from their toxic environment

As indicated, the environment where the person develops his addictive habit It must be changed as soon as possible for another healthy environment without addictions.

Entering a detox center is one of the best ways to isolate a person from their harmful environment.