10 Ways To Cope With An Addict In The Family
6. Love him/her no matter what
You would love your family member if he was sick, right? Or if he had some other disease like diabetes or cancer. As we said earlier, addiction is also a disease and thus you should treat your family member just like you would if he was sick. You should never stop to love him/her.
7. Let him/her learn from his/her mistakes
One more thing that you need to keep in mind is that in the long run of recovery, your family member will face a lot of problems. But you need to be strong and NOT help him/her out of those situations. Yes, you heard us right. It’s better to let them stumble and then learn from their own mistakes.
8. Don’t ever give him/her ultimatums
This is one thing that you should never do. You are here to help him/her come out of his problem. But by giving him/her ultimatums like, ‘I won’t talk to you’ or I’m going to leave you’ or ‘I can’t take it anymore’ will only create a bigger problem.
9. Be patient
You need to be patient and let things work out for themselves. Don’t think that this problem will be solved in a jiffy once you start helping them. Helping someone to recover from their addiction is a long term process.
10. Never abandon him/her
This is perhaps the most important thing that you need to remember when dealing with an addict in your family. He/she is just sick and you need to be there to help him/her recover. But if you lose confidence in yourself and just abandon your loved one, it will have worse consequences for him/her.
We hope these ideas will be helpful for you to cope with an addict in your family.
