Do’s and Don’ts When Dealing With a Loved One’s Substance Abuse Problem
April 29, 2008Those who have a loved one with an addiction to drugs or alcohol often don’t know how to act around that person. They want to help but don’t know how. Are they enabling? How do you talk to them? Friends and family members who attend Crossroads for Women’s 4-week educational series, “The Effects of Addiction on Friends and Family,” come to us armed with questions like these. The following do’s and don’ts are from Nar-Anon Family Groups:
Do
- Note the effect the user has on each member of the family.
- Always encourage attempts to seek help.
- Remember to see the good in yourself and others.
- Allow other people to accept their own responsibilities.
- Involve yourself with Al-Anon / Nar-Anon support groups.
- Learn to be open and honest.
- Grow day by day.
- Remember to focus on your OWN reactions and attitudes.
- Manage your anxieties one day at a time.
Don’t
- Accept guilt for another person’s acts.
- Nag, argue, lecture or recall past mistakes.
- Overprotect, cover up or rescue from the consequences.
- Neglect yourself or be a doormat.
- Forget addiction is an illness.
- Manipulate or make idle threats.
- Yearn for perfection in yourself or others.
- Overlook the growth opportunities of a crisis.
- Underestimate the importance of release with love.
While it seems like a short list, these points are important for those around the addicted loved one to understand. So important that Crossroads for Women dedicates an entire session to the do’s and don’ts for friends and family members.
“The Effects of Addiction on Friends & Family” explores the basics of addiction, the recovery process and how to be supportive of an addicted loved one while also taking care of you. Those in the Portland, ME area can experience the next educational series starting on May 6th.
FMI
May 6th – Learn About a Loved One’s Addiction
View “The Effects of Addiction on Friends & Family” flyer with the entire 2008 schedule (PDF)
Crossroads for Women’s (Portland, ME) services for those affected by a loved one’s addiction
From this blog: Read more about how addiction affects friends and family members
Technorati Tags: loved one, addiction, effects, family, friends, substance abuse
The Conservative in Canada can start by being an example themselves firstly..The PM Stephen Harper also loves wine too much, for a person who is supposed to be an evangelical abstainer now too.
If you took 2 martinis or 2 beers a day you are an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a crime and not a disease, it is a crime, it is just as lethal, bad, and it is really unacceptable as selling or taking bad drugs too. Canada’s bad drug problem, drunk driving, alcoholism is increasing not just amongst the teens, but also in the work place, in the government now as well even amongst the civil and public servants.
Not one cent of tax payers money should be used by anyone for any alcoholic entertainment in any government expense, function now as well. Alcohol causes irreversible brain damage, and it next also hurts many others undeniably too..
Gangs and drugs, alcohol are are still a big problem on Indian reservations and elsewhere. Why? all while zero tolerance for gang affiliations or child pornography, has developed too. We can tackle the supply of drugs by taking on and defeating the criminal gangs who should be treated in the same way as subversive organizations were. “ We all do have to send a message loud and clear to the gangs – you are not tolerated and If you are caught you will be charged. In many cases such gangs are linked to organized crime. You need to fully also go after the gang leaders who are making money using the kids and drugs to do it. The government can now wrest control of violence-plagued reserves by having zero tolerance for gangs and by banning drugs and alcohol from homes, with the help of RCMP and the courts. I can tell you that our government is committed to ensuring that Canada will not be safe haven for those who pose a threat to our national security or the safety of our families and communities. On this, our tolerance level is zero,” Stockwell Day but real actions by the government still do speak louder than words.
“The most successful policing model in modern terms is the “zero tolerance” model used in New York. The strategy was known there as “one broken window” following the observation that where there were broken windows and rubbish in streets there was crime. During the programme’s operation in New York, the number of murders plummeted from 2,262 to 629.”