Helping Your Loved Ones Seek Help for their Addiction

It’s hard watching a loved one struggle with an addiction. You see them slowly pushing people away and ruining their chances for healthy and happy relationships, as well as for career advancement. It hurts you to see them suffering, and it makes you want to do something to help.

You may encourage your loved one to get addiction treatment in Phoenix but they may refuse. That can make the situation even harder on you, knowing that someone you love is suffering but won’t take the steps to get the help they need. Here are a few things you can do to help your loved one and yourself during this time:

a loving couple in addiction treatment

Find a Good 12-Step Program

A 12-step program can help anyone struggling with addiction – whether that be to alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, or overeating. A 12-step program gives those struggling with addiction a structured plan for overcoming and managing their addiction. Plus, it provides support from those who have dealt with the same addiction.

Find a good 12-step program in Scottsdale and share that information with your loved one. Even if they are not ready to get the help they need, you can hang onto the information for when the time is right.

Go to a Friends and Family Support Group

There are many groups designed specifically to support the friends and family members of those struggling with addiction. These groups help educate the loved ones of addicts about what they are going through, including both physically and mentally.

By attending this group, you can better understand why your loved one may be behaving the way they are – including resisting addiction treatment. You can also share your own struggles and feelings with the group and get support from those who have experienced the same thing.

Go to Family Therapy

Your loved one may not agree to go to addiction treatment alone, but they may agree to go to counseling with you and other family members. A good family counselor can help you and your loved one struggling with addiction work through many issues, including your relationship dynamics and any circumstances that could have contributed to your loved one’s addiction.

A good Arizona addiction treatment center will offer out-patient family therapy or can recommend you to one in the community. You can also do your own research to find a therapist in the community you like.

Tend to Self-Care

You can’t help someone else in an emergency until you put on your own oxygen mask. If you are trying to help someone in crisis, such as when they are struggling with addiction, you aren’t going to have the strength or the ability to do so unless you are in a good place yourself. If you are in distress, you are going to jeopardize your own emotional and even physical health and you could make matters worse for your addicted loved one.

Tend to your own self-care before you try to care for someone else. Talk to a Phoenix counselor about what you are going through. Get the rest you need, and engage in activities that help you relieve stress, such as exercise or meditation. The more you can do for yourself, the better prepared you will be to help your loved one.

Watching a loved one suffer through addiction can be excruciating. Watching them suffer through addiction in while also refusing to get needed help can make the situation even worse. You can support and encourage your loved one until they are ready to get help. In the meantime, you can tend to your own self-care and mental health.

Corebella Health and Wellness offers services to support the whole family. We have addiction treatment for those actively combating an addiction and counseling for those who are trying to maintain their sobriety. We also offer family counseling for family and loved ones to attend with the person struggling with addiction, as well as support groups for those who love someone struggling with addiction. We offer wellness services to support an overall healthy lifestyle and mental health, as well. Call us today to learn more about our services in Tempe, Glendale, and Scottsdale. We have the services to support you from addiction to wellness.