Loving Someone with an Addiction: What You Can Do to Help

It involves family and friends and sometimes co-workers, clergy or others who care about the person struggling with addiction. While someone is seeking treatment for alcohol abuse, you can offer in-person support while they search for the right provider. Your loved one may be worried about issues such as the pain of detox or logistics like childcare when they attend treatment. Ideally, before approaching your loved one with treatment options, you’ve thought through some of these issues.

Some of these methods may seem harsh, but they come from a loving approach with the ultimate goal to help the person overcome their addiction and to help all parties heal. Help the person address the problems that led to them drinking. If your loved one drank because of boredom, anxiety, or loneliness, for example, those problems will still be present once they’re sober.

Club drugs

Offer your support along each step of the recovery journey. Research the kinds of treatment that are available and discuss these options with your friend or family member. Express your concerns in a caring way and encourage your friend or family member to get help. Try to remain neutral and don’t argue, lecture, accuse, or threaten.

• Psychologists can also provide referrals to self-help groups.
• Explore how many people ages 18 to 25 engage in alcohol misuse in the United States and the impact it has.
• Find up-to-date statistics on lifetime drinking, past-year drinking, past-month drinking, binge drinking, heavy alcohol use, and high-intensity drinking.
• In fact, even when someone does reach what seems like the lowest low—maybe following an overdose or a drunk driving accident—they will probably continue to misuse substances and refuse help.
• Due to the anonymous nature of mutual-support groups, it is difficult for researchers to determine their success rates compared with those led by health professionals.

Some of the most common risks are the damage to your emotional and mental well-being. Emotionally prepare yourself for these situations, while remaining hopeful for positive change. If your loved one doesn’t accept treatment, be prepared to follow through with the changes you presented. In some cases, your loved one with an addiction may refuse the treatment plan. He or she may erupt in anger or insist that help is not needed or may be resentful and accuse you of betrayal or being a hypocrite.

The Brain Develops Tolerance

If you are experiencing negative moods, anxiety, or sadness, taking stimulants like cocaine also provides short-term fulfillment. With time, the brain gets used to the substances, which translates to less pleasure. But these drugs overwhelm the brain, and in turn, the brain either releases less dopamine or gets rid of its receptors. The difference comes in the speed, intensity, and reliability with which the brain releases dopamine. Typically, drugs of abuse stimulate a high dopamine surge. The high levels create an alternative route to the brain’s reward system, which causes dopamine to flood the brain—and ultimately intensifies addiction.

Heavy drinking can cause physiological changes that make more drinking the only way to avoid discomfort. Individuals with alcohol dependence may drink partly to reduce or avoid withdrawal symptoms. Social anxiety disorder typically begins in teen years and does not improve without treatment. People with the disorder are often shy and introverted struggling with alcohol addiction as small children, which then intensifies with age. Although those suffering from the disorder may realize that their social fears are excessive or unreasonable, they are unable to suppress or overcome them. A medical detox program ensures the utmost safety during acute alcohol withdrawal, a time that can be very dangerous.

Can You Force Someone to Go to Rehab?

Alcohol-related problems—which result from drinking too much, too fast, or too often—are among the most significant public health issues in the United States. However, long-term addictions can be successfully treated. Unlike cocaine or heroin, alcohol is widely available and accepted in many cultures. It’s often at the center of social situations and closely linked to celebrations and enjoyment. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information.

If your loved one displays the symptoms of a substance use disorder, your relationship is  likely affected by their substance misuse in multiple ways, including emotionally, physically, and financially. You may even find yourself interacting with https://ecosoberhouse.com/ them in a manner that is called codependency. Research viable treatment options online before speaking with your loved one, make calls to treatment centers that appear appropriate for your loved one, and ask them any questions you may have.

Don’t lie or cover things up to protect someone from the consequences of their drinking. The symptoms listed above may be a sign of a severe form of alcohol withdrawal called delirium tremens, or DTs. This rare, emergency condition causes dangerous changes in the way your brain regulates your circulation and breathing, so it’s important to get to the hospital right away. Make a note about how you feel physically and mentally on these days—recognizing the benefits may help you to cut down for good. Alcohol addiction is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States.

• If you’re living with someone who has AUD, it’s important to understand what’s behind the addiction to alcohol and to learn how to cope.
• Some people can control how much they drink, but others have risk factors that prevent them from drinking responsibly.
• Treatment may involve a brief intervention, individual or group counseling, an outpatient program, or a residential inpatient stay.

Dealing with a loved one’s alcohol abuse or alcoholism can be painful and challenging for the whole family, but there is help available. Your loved one’s motivation for recovery hinges on the encouragement and support they get from others around them. People with mild alcohol problems may be able to quit drinking on their own or with the help of support groups. However, people who are addicted to alcohol require treatment.