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This story is sponsored by Renaissance Ranch. Learn more about Renaissance Ranch.
When your loved one is struggling with a drug or alcohol addiction, it takes a toll on the entire family. You may be experiencing feelings of hopelessness and even frustration toward them. This normal, but don’t give up just yet. Your loved one needs you more than ever, but there are better ways to handle the situation than others.
Renaissance Ranch has brought you seven steps to take when your loved one has an addiction.
1. Educate yourself
To the person who doesn’t struggle with addiction, the solution is as easy as putting the drink down or throwing the pills away. But for the one struggling, it is not that simple.
Unless you have experienced addiction yourself, you can't fully understand it, but you can come close by educating yourself. Conduct online research on the effects of addiction. Contact a certified specialist. Talk to someone who has been through it.
Knowing what your loved one is going through will help you feel compassion for them, which is crucial to getting them the help they need.
2. Live your life
Seeing a loved one go through something as difficult as addiction can often drag you down. Without having even taken a drug yourself, you may begin to feel symptoms of fatigue, depression and anxiety as the stress begins to take a toll on you.
If you want to help your loved one, you need to be on top of your game, which means that you must keep living your life.
Be a parent to your children. Go for walks with your spouse. Go to church. Be the very best employee you can be. Live your life.
By doing so, you will maintain the ability to help when you need to.
3. Be observant
While educating yourself is a key factor to helping your loved one, drug addiction is different for everyone. Take time to observe your loved one’s behavior. Take careful notes of patterns, triggers — things that he or she reacts negatively to — and behaviors that are of concern.
It is also important to encourage key family members to do the same so that if it comes to the point when you need to approach your loved one, you can determine how to best do that.
4. Intervention
If the addiction comes to the point where you feel like you need to bring attention to the problem in a more structured manner, an intervention may be necessary.
Keep in mind, however, that an intervention is not about ganging up on your loved one, but more about bringing hope, concern and a solution to the problem. And while some have had success conducting interventions on their own, seek professional help with trained interventionists — especially if your loved one has a history of violence, suicidal tendencies or serious mental illness.
5. Get professional help
Getting professional help is not only a difficult step for the one struggling with addiction, but also for his or her family members and friends. After all, you know your loved one, and who better to help than those who know and love them?
The problem is, when you are so close to the situation, feelings can be very raw, making it difficult to make progress. When outside help is introduced, you are offered a new set of eyes that are not emotionally connected and can see clearly through the muddled mess of addiction.
6. Attend family support groups
While it is very apparent that your loved one is in need of outside help, what many fail to recognize is the toll that it has on the entire family unit. It is important to repair your family through things like family support groups so when your loved one is on the path to recovery, you can be able to weather the storms that are likely to come after.
7. Never stop loving them
Despite the hostility that you may be receiving from your loved one and the frustration you may be feeling toward them, deep down everyone wants to be loved and to show that same love back.
Keep that in mind during the hard times, and never stop showing love and kindness toward your loved one struggling. Someday you will have them back. And when you do, you want them to know that there is a place filled with loving people they can come back to.