Fourteen Rules When Dealing with Addiction
When you’ve got a loved one who is addicted, it seems like all the rules change. The ways you have learned to care about and be patient with them just don’t work anymore. The problem is that it often takes the family a very long time to learn this lesson. It’s very hard to shift gears this thoroughly – after all, as we learn to be parents, aunts, uncles, sons and daughters or grandparents, we learn to forgive and trust.
When drug or alcohol addiction enter the scene, either the rules must change or everyone may lose the game. It becomes necessary to suspend trust and admit the problem to other family members or one’s minister or doctor. Old rules about privacy may need to be tossed out if the addicted person is to get help.
Sometimes husbands, wives or parents feel backed into a corner. It’s easy for addicts to become aggressive or antagonistic if they are pressured about their drug use. They become manipulative and often turn on the person who is trying to help them, accusing them of not supporting them, of being suspicious. The addict may pick at every small flaw the family member has, trying to tear them apart. But the only person who is really going to suffer from this assault is the addicted person. He may very well prevent help from arriving in time to save his life.
Drugs themselves cause some of this aggressive behavior and then the character decay that occurs after lengthy drug use causes more evasive argumentative behavior. To help families protect themselves, against these changes in their loved one, we created a short guide to learning the new rules. They are all contained in this booklet: 14 Rules You Must Never Break When Dealing with Addiction.
In addition to listing the rules, each one is illustrated with examples of how a person can fail to apply that rule and how it can be done right. This helps make each rule easier to understand.
If you are struggling with this problem yourself or you know someone who is, we hope you will take the time to read this series. And of course, if we can help you with addiction rehabilitation, contact us. We have rehab centers all around the world and we can help.