Does Someone You Love Need Drug Rehab?
Chances are if you are visiting this site you already know that someone you care about needs drug rehab treatment. It can be a daunting process convincing someone with alcohol or drug addiction to go to treatment. Everything about addiction – denial, cravings, compulsion – makes the addict want to fight any attempt to keep them from alcohol or drugs. If you have decided this is the right course of action, know that while you cannot force someone to go to drug rehab, you can make it harder for them to continue using drugs and alcohol.
Enabling is a word you may have heard when researching drug addiction. Enabling can take many forms, from the seemingly innocent act of covering up for a loved one to the most egregious – helping the loved one get the drugs they want. If you make it easier, in any way, for the addicted person to continue using alcohol or drugs, you are in essence enabling the addiction. Here are some of the ways people make it easier for someone to use drugs and not get the help they need.
- Making excuses for bad behavior
- Cleaning up their messes
- Bailing them out of jail on DUIs
- Letting them convince you they have it under control
- Allowing them to use in front of you
- Financially supporting their drug or alcohol use
- Serving as a safe haven for continued drug or alcohol use
- Lying to other family members to hide their abuse
- Minimizing their behavior to make yourself feel better
In many ways, the first step toward getting a loved one to accept drug treatment, is creating boundaries: you basically say, I will no longer do anything that supports your addiction. I love you and I will support you in treatment and recovery, but I will not do anything that covers up or enables your drug abuse.
Sometimes it is hard to do this alone. There are professional intervention specialists who can help you form a plan as well as teach you about the ways in which families inadvertently support continued drug and alcohol aubse.