Introduction

Do you know someone struggling with addiction issues? Maybe your friend, spouse, or colleague. Helping a loved one grappling with addiction can be an overwhelming and daunting task. Overcoming addiction is challenging and difficult, it requires lots of patience, dedication, and time. An addicted person must have developed a resistance or tolerance to a certain substance he or she is abusing. Therefore they need more of that drug to reach the “high feeling”.

Even if the addicted person desires to stop substance abuse, they can not. In many cases they won’t be really interested in getting out of their addiction and also some of them were afraid of the withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms are the unpleasant physical and mental effects that happen to a person, as soon as he or she stops abusing drugs/alcohol. A very difficult phase to follow for a person in order to recover from addiction. Many times a family or friend’s support and guidance are needed the most to recover from addiction.

Most people think that addiction issues are difficult to overcome, due to its effects after the treatment. For an addict sometimes a piece of advice from their loved ones matters the most and it can help to kindle them to recover or withdraw from their addiction. When there is a situation that they really want to overcome their addiction and if you are unable to guide them to the recovery path, you can contact the nearby addiction recovery center for help and chose the best treatment for your loved one. If you really want to help your loved one overcome addiction this article will give you a helping hand.

Factors That Influence Drug Or Alcohol addiction

It is essential to know the factors that cause the addiction behavior in your loved ones. Hence you will be able to guide them through the proper treatment process and support.

Genetics

Family history of addiction can be the main reason, which acts as a trigger sometimes for a person to get addicted. If there is a generation hierarchy towards any kind of addiction, then this will induce the genetic code restructuring for their younger generation and knowingly or unknowingly these too will have to face many side effects, without being an addict.

Trauma

Mental or physical trauma is one of the reasons that influence addiction. The person who has PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ) may suffer sleep disorders, extreme mood swings, nightmares, flashbacks, and they feel disconnected from the real world, they may even cause self-injuries for themselves. In order to get away from their negatives, they move on to any kind of addiction as a relaxation part.

Mental Health Disorders

Anxiety and depression would be the highest factors in ratios and surveys for one to get addicted. Mental health is always important for a person. It’s common for everyone to be stressed and depressed, but the level of that varies depending upon the person. Many of them in order to get away from their level of stress, feel addiction as a relief, but that is not the real case what they think and falling as prey to addiction.

Abusing Drugs At An Early Age

The early-stage here, sometimes it starts at the womb, it is not advisable for pregnant ladies to get into any type of abuse, but we can’t give 100% assurance or stats saying that. A kid who is abused at a very young stage of life has its effects many years when they become adults. Sometimes they may know or unknowingly become an addict.

Know What Is “Drug/Alcohol Addiction”

Understanding addiction is imperative for a person if he or she desires to help their loved ones. Drug addiction varies from person to person. Someone will use drugs occasionally to relieve their stress whereas few persons are chronically addicted to it, as they can’t live without taking drugs. They might have developed this drug addiction behavior during their childhood, at school or college, or due to a mental disorder. Hence it is important to scrutinize when your loved one started using drugs and what triggered them to use the drugs.

By gathering this information and knowing the severity of drug addiction, you can take an informed decision on treating your loved one’s addiction issues and find drug treatment centers nearby you. Choose the best treatment centers and the form of therapies that suits the best for your loved one, moreover, they need your love, care, and support throughout their recovery process.

Understand The Symptoms Of An Addiction

The next step is to understand the symptoms of addiction. Your loved one with addiction will show a pattern of behavioral and physical changes based on the severity of the addiction. The symptoms may also vary for drugs, alcohol, and any kind of substance abuse. Here are a few common signs to note.

Kindly have a keen note on these symptoms, which may help you earlier to identify the addiction of your loved one. If you found out any of the symptoms in your loved one, try to speak with them.

Love-Talk With Your Loved One

Yes, it is everything about love and communication! It is imperative that you always have a strong connection with your loved one. Talking with your loved one is the best way. Have an open heart-heart conversion and gain your loved one’s attention. Some individuals with addiction will be reluctant and hesitate to talk. For many of them, it was a failure and it will break into a huge argument. Be patient and let them know you are with them to support them on their journey to recovery. Give them hope, build trust, and let your loved one know they are not alone. A counseling or an open talk can make them feel better and this will help them to break the barrier apart, lightens their feel and guilty.

Intervention

Sometimes simply talking with an addicted person doesn’t work, hence intervention is required. An intervention is a planned conversation between a loved one and an addict, which is supervised by an intervention specialist. This intervention helps the addicted person to express his/her feelings and difficulties. The aim of the intervention is to motivate the addict towards recovery and change their life. In order to stage an intervention, you can choose a group of people close to your loved ones. These groups of people along with the intervention specialist will talk about the consequences of addiction in your loved one’s life and provide motivation to constantly receive addiction treatment help.

Relapse Is Just An Additional Factor

Your loved one might have recovered from their addiction issues and have stayed sober for days, months or years. But due to various circumstances, they start abusing drugs again and this is called a relapse. A relapse can be disappointing for you and the addict’s family. However, addiction treatment experts consider it as just an “additional factor”. Hence if you are helping your loved one overcome their addiction, you should not be discouraged by your loved one’s relapsing behavior. Don’t leave your hope, constantly encourage them to progress towards their recovery process. Make them understand a relapse doesn’t mean failure and is common among recovering individuals. Make them understand the relapse and not to feel more guilty, give them the maximum support you can for them to recover from addiction.

Encourage For An Addiction Treatment Help

The severity of addiction varies among individuals and depends upon the type of substance abused. If you feel that your loved one should get a professional addiction treatment to get recovered from their addiction issues, then definitely you should find a drug help center. There are various addiction treatments offered in the drug help centers including detoxification, inpatient rehabilitation, outpatient rehabilitation, therapies, counseling, and 12-step programs. Initially, your loved one may be reluctant to get an addiction treatment help. It is your responsibility to convince your loved one to seek treatment programs. There are short-term programs, where your loved one can attend without disturbing his or her personal life and work. Initially getting them to the treatment centers would be tough for you, once they realize the factors that they want to recover from addiction issues they automatically cooperate with you and come a long way in their recovery process. Always a loved one’s affection and care can change many things in one person’s life and it is a powerful force to change hell into heaven.

Final Word

Helping your loved one towards addiction recovery can be heartbreaking. Before you start helping your loved one, you should be armed with all the nitty-gritty of addiction and addiction treatment. I hope this article helped you on your mission and begin helping your loved one towards a sober life.