What to Do When a Family Member Is Addicted to Drugs
What to Do When a Family Member Is Addicted to Drugs
Guidance for relatives and loved ones of a person with addiction, to help them find their way into proper drug treatment and recovery.
When someone you love is addicted to drugs, they have usually been using for a long time — long enough that using has become part of their everyday life. This is what’s known as the addicted brain, along with tolerance, which means they need larger and larger amounts to feel the same effect. When they stop using or cut back, they experience craving and withdrawal symptoms. So the person becomes trapped in a cycle of drug use, often without realizing it. The people around them — especially family, relatives, and close friends — usually recognize the problem sooner than the person themselves, and step in to help. But helping is difficult, because the person often doesn’t cooperate. It takes understanding, empathy, patience, and real skill to eventually help them quit for good. Here is guidance for relatives:
-
Relatives should learn about addiction as a medical condition — its symptoms and how it’s treated — through reliable media, or by consulting a psychiatrist directly first.
-
Relatives should stop unintentionally enabling the person’s drug use. Review your own actions to see whether you’re supporting the behavior, and stop doing so. For example: giving money out of fear the person will become violent, only for that money to go toward buying drugs — or drinking alcohol together to keep them company.
-
Relatives should encourage the person to take responsibility for the consequences of their own drug use — debts they’ve created, legal cases, and effects on their work.
-
Relatives must also take care of themselves. Family members often care for the person with addiction to the point of neglecting themselves. Self-care guidance includes: letting go of thoughts and feelings that are consumed by the person’s situation, tending to your own physical and mental health, continuing to fulfill your role in the family — caring for children, caring for parents — and being careful not to be harmed by the person while they are under the influence.
-
Relatives should seek help, because drug problems easily affect everyone involved and usually cannot be solved alone. You may need guidance from professionals — physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, or addiction counselors.
How Relatives Can Help Guide the Person Into Treatment
-
Relatives should gently and gradually persuade the person, choosing moments when they are lucid and not under the influence.
-
Express genuine concern about aspects of their health they care about, and about the effects drug use is having.
-
Avoid saying outright that they are “addicted” and “need to quit,” since the person will often refuse to accept it.
-
If the person is still using, relatives do not need to give special care around drug-related matters — waiting up for them to come home, preparing food for them, waiting by the phone, taking leave from work on their behalf, making excuses for them, or giving them money to spend freely. These can indirectly enable continued use.
-
Relatives should turn more attention to caring for themselves, since stress does not help solve the person’s drug problem. Be careful not to let the person harm you, and take precautions against danger while they are under the influence.
-
If the person becomes seriously aggressive, you may need to call for help or contact the police to de-escalate the situation, or to help get the person to a hospital — especially one with a psychiatric department — or to a drug rehabilitation center.
-
If the person hasn’t yet seen a doctor, relatives can see a doctor first to learn about addiction and get advice on how to bring the person in for care.
-
If relatives feel overwhelmed by stress, they should set the problem aside for a moment and consult a doctor to take care of themselves first. Once you feel better, you can begin thinking through how to help the person again.
Studies show that treatment outcomes improve when at least one family member takes part in supporting the person through treatment, because family members learn what to expect at each stage of the recovery process — helping them understand what the person is going through and what obstacles stand in the way of quitting.
That said, some people in treatment avoid help from family members, or claim that family members are only there to nag and criticize, and so they may not succeed as well as they could. Still, family involvement in treatment benefits the person, because they can sense that their family, relatives, or other people close to them are sharing responsibility for their drug problem. The chances of successfully quitting are greater for those whose family or relatives take part in solving the problem.
Quitting drugs is not easy, so knowing the right way to approach treatment matters greatly. For anyone struggling with substance use who is looking for a way to quit drugs, quit alcohol, or even quit gambling, consult DAY ONE REHABILITATION CENTER — a residential drug rehabilitation center with a resort-like atmosphere, embraced by water and nature, calm and relaxing, in Nakhon Nayok province. Our multidisciplinary team includes psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, psychologists, and occupational therapists with expertise in substance use problems. Treatment requires a range of specialists so that each therapy activity can be tailored appropriately, providing holistic care for people in treatment.
Contact Us
99/1 Moo 6, Si Chula, Mueang Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Nayok 26000, Thailand
Mon – Sun: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (ICT)