Family Therapy Can Help · Behavioral Health Treatment. The challenge of addiction is that the addict is not the only one affected by this disease. Family and friends may struggle with the addict's behavior, financial problems, legal problems, and the daily struggle to provide for a loved one. Here are seven tips that family and friends can consult to support an addicted family member or friend.
Talking to a health professional can sometimes convince you to seek help for addictions, rather than listening to this suggestion from a family member or friend. Treating yourself to self-care isn't selfish, especially when helping someone deal with an addiction. Embarrassing or criticizing a family member who is struggling with an addiction to alcohol or opioids is often counterproductive to their recovery. To be clear, it's not always an easy decision to help with substance use or another type of addiction.
Seeing an addiction professional, such as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, a social worker, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, or an interventionist, can help you organize an effective intervention. When a person with an addiction is unwilling to seek treatment, they will resort to whatever it takes to continue to feed their addiction. An addiction professional will consider your loved one's particular circumstances, suggest the best approach, and guide you on the type of treatment and follow-up plan that are likely to work best. For example, Mayo Clinic offers a variety of addiction services and has a comprehensive team approach to treating addiction.
When you learn to help an alcoholic family member or loved one with any other type of addiction, being compassionate is also a great way to help build trust, which is crucial for a successful and lasting recovery. These programs often incorporate elements of CBT and motivational interviewing, which involve the use of structured conversations to help people think about how their lives will improve by ending their addiction. An intervention can motivate someone to seek help for alcohol or drug misuse, compulsive eating, or other addictive behaviors. That said, one way to help someone who refuses help for substance abuse is to learn about their addiction and then try to find resources that can change their mind.
Addiction therapy using CBT focuses on helping people understand how their beliefs and feelings influence their behaviors. Recognizing these general descriptions and behavior patterns is a part of how to help an addict without training them. You'll never understand how to help an addict without training them until you recognize these dysfunctional dynamics.