Intervention: Help a loved one overcome addiction

Express your concern for their well-being as someone who cares for them. Emotionally prepare yourself for these situations, while remaining hopeful for positive change. If your loved one doesn’t accept treatment, be prepared to follow through with the changes you presented.

At San Antonio Recovery Center, we offer comprehensive treatment at our alcohol rehab center where individuals in need and those who love them can learn more about recovery. It’s important to approach a person with a drinking problem from a solutions-based standpoint. When you sit them down alone or with family, you want to be able to show them you took the time to research and understand their options for getting help or treatment for substance abuse. Unfortunately, there aren’t many options available to you for your parent if they refuse help. You can turn to friends and family members of your parent as well to see if you can get them to help convince your parent to seek help.

How to support your loved one through their journey

The Association for Addiction Professionals represents the professional interests of more than 100,000 addiction-focused health care professionals in the United States, Canada and abroad. The nature of addiction is that many people tell themselves they don’t have a problem, that they can handle it. They often dismiss the concerns of those closest to them. Sometimes it takes the words of a professional or someone on the outside for the right words to get through.

• On top of these feelings and the resultant fatigue, you’re likely also concerned about the health, wellbeing, and future of all members of your household.
• The best thing you can do is to bring to their attention to the fact that you think they have a problem.
• All you can do is encourage the person to recommit to overcoming their drinking problem and support them as they try again.
• A key element of helping an alcoholic is providing ample support.
• However, this can also be exceptionally draining after a while.
• Perhaps a “drinking problem” is something you talk to a person about, you ask them to improve their behavior for their own good.

When a friend or family member struggles with alcoholism, their loved ones might not know how to get them the help that they need. Discovery Place near Nashville, Tennessee, is here for men who need help with alcohol addiction as well as other substance use disorders. Contact us today to learn more about how to help an alcoholic family member or friend. Your city’s local Alcoholics Anonymous central office can help coordinate it.

Facts About Aging and Alcohol

It would be like telling someone with diabetes to just try harder at not having diabetes. It doesn’t make sense and they wouldn’t be able to do it no matter how hard they tried. A common myth, even among those in recovery, is that someone has to want to get help (treatment/rehab) for the help to work.

As much as you may want to, and as hard as it is to watch, you cannot make someone stop drinking. A person is not cured of alcoholism after they leave rehab. Stressful situations, temptation, and toxic friends and environments can lead someone to start drinking again. Helping someone with AUD can be emotionally draining, and you want to make sure you are not putting your mental health at risk to support them.

No matter what, continue to be supportive throughout their recovery.

Watching a friend or family member suffer from alcoholism is deeply distressing and frustrating. To help the person stop drinking, you’ll need to confront them and try to support them as they get help. Tell them that you’re worried, that you care about them, and that you want them to get help.

The addiction community is made up of caring and compassionate professionals who are trained to help. When dealing with a friend or loved one who might be an alcoholic, it’s often difficult to know how to help them. Here are 10 ways to help an alcoholic overcome their disease. Before seriously confronting someone about their drug or alcohol use, spend some time thinking about the reasons you have for being concerned. Be ready to offer these up as examples when having a conversation with your loved ones.

Worried About a Loved One’s Drinking? What to Do

Give us a call today to verify your insurance coverage or to learn more about paying for addiction treatment. Your partner may benefit from attending AA meetings, while you could find the peer support of Al-Anon invaluable. You’ll be surrounded by the family members of alcoholics undergoing broadly similar experiences.

If appropriate, your loved one’s doctor may even prescribe medication approved to help treat alcohol dependence. Dealing with a loved one’s alcohol abuse or alcoholism can be painful and challenging for the whole family, but there is help available. It can also cause stress and worry for friends and family. It can be difficult https://goodmenproject.com/everyday-life-2/top-5-tips-to-consider-when-choosing-a-sober-house-for-living/ to communicate your concerns and find ways to help a loved one cut back or quit drinking. Following are suggestions on how to approach the topic, offer to help, and take care of yourself. When helping an alcoholic stop drinking, making them feel shame or lowering their self-esteem will do no good in a situation such as this.

Alcohol use disorder is characterized by a compulsive desire to consume alcohol, regardless of adverse outcomes. Your loved one may not even be aware they are drinking problematically, or they could be in denial that a problem exists. Keep in mind that your loved one is behaving in this way due to changes to brain structure induced by alcohol abuse. Stop viewing the situation personally, and accept that your spouse may not be in control of their actions. Most alcoholics drink in response to triggers, like work stress or social stress. Identifying any triggers and trying to remove or minimize them is important.

Make sure that you are not doing anything that bolsters their denial or prevents them from facing the natural consequences of their actions. If family members try to “help” by covering up for their drinking and making excuses for them, they are playing right into their loved one’s denial game. Dealing with the problem openly and honestly is the best approach.

You don’t want to come at them while they are buzzed, drunk or stressed. Often the best time of day to catch someone without a drink in his or her hands already is in the morning. You want to approach them in a peaceful and private setting, so you have the most probable opportunity for them to open up to you and receive the important message you are carrying for them.

In just about every case of active alcoholism, we see, there’s at least one family member or friend who continues to provide financial support to the alcoholic family member. Unfortunately, that person can undo all the other efforts everyone else is trying to make. Because as long as someone in active addiction has sober house access to money, the motivation to quit just won’t be there. Depending on the severity of the AUD, individuals can enter into a number of alcohol rehabilitation programs including inpatient and outpatient addiction treatment settings. Behavioral treatments include individual, group, and family therapy sessions.