How to Deal With a Drug-Addicted Family Member

It's fascinating, or rather, ironic, how suppression causes insurrection. You tell them it's bad for them, and the very next moment you see them doing the same with double the intensity. They do it like kids, but then, it's absurd to expect kids to be aware of the bad it holds.

Addicts brave on finding the darkest of places to make it their way of life, the brouhaha about drugs and drug addiction that allures their soul. It ain't easy to understand the process that goes into starting something that can harm them.

And you know the worst part? They know it all very well. While there isn't an easy way to get your loved one out of doing the forbidden, there's one thing - imposing restrictions and bans never made it to a drug-recovery best-seller.

Howbeit, even though there's nothing as enticing as the disallowed, focusing on the bad instead of the good (what good does doing drugs hold) can help, if only a little. Never leave them all through the process of recuperation. They're yours, whatever way they are.

Educate yourself on what kind of drugs is your loved one indulging into, and take action, no matter how hard it is. The process of figuring out a way to tackle a drug-addicted family member isn't an easy one. It'll break you, but it'll break you more to see your loved one losing the battle of life. Blunt and rude? True that.

It's difficult for those who've never suffered from an addiction to understand the problems of the ones who have. With regard to the treatment of drug addiction, you may think less with the heart and more with the mind.

You would want to beat them up, trash all their drugs, keep panicking all day long, and lock them in a room with no source of drugs. There, everything goes wrong. While this is the most common step any family member would take when they find their loved one battling with themselves, putting restrictions on and grounding them is the improper step to be taken.

You need to understand what addiction is. It isn't a disease; it's a choice. One does it by choice. If they like it, they do it more. If they don't, they don't do it again. When they do it, they do it like there's no tomorrow. However, you need to make them comfortable by telling them that you know about their addiction, and that you're always there to help.

There's a lot of difficulty in accepting that one of your family members is now a drug addict. In panic and stress, you start abusing them, call them an addict all the time, threaten them that you will leave them if they don't quit, and give them all the reasons to make them hate you. Stop. This way, you're making them dishonest, left alone, and loathsome.

You don't want them to retreat into a shell of their own, do you? What you can do however, is stop aiding them financially. If the member is your son or daughter, you can simply refuse to give them money. Chances in this case are, the addict might end up stealing or borrowing money from others to satiate their craving.

However, it's upon you to keep a check on where they go and what they do. Don't hover, though. You could always take them along to a place full of fresh air with happy people. Positive reinforcement is one of the best solutions to addiction, where you can tell them how good it feels to be stress free, and that darkness is not a way of life at all.

Leaving your family member in the middle of nowhere is, in no way, an appreciative move. Instead, you could be their only hope to get out of the rut they're stuck in. Visit groups dedicated to drug recovery with your loved one. Let them learn how other people got over their addiction to drugs, and how happier and healthier they feel now.

It will instigate a feeling within your family member to do the same. Those members will make your loved one feel that when you're captivated by this addiction, you're alone. But when you come out of it, you see that the world awaits to embrace you, whole-heartedly.

In the end, if nothing works in favor, it's time you get your family member to a specialist who will treat them in their own ways. You know, as a family member, the most you can do is be by their side, creating a safe and healthy environment with no alcohol, drugs, and stress.

But if you fail at being their strength, it's high time you took them to a health care provider. Agreed, it's a long and difficult process, and as harsh as it may sound, it isn't a hundred percent working solution. But then, it's better to be amongst the few persons to give a ray of hope, instead of leaving them in the groove, forever.