A Guide for Parents Of Addicts

Your adult child’s alcohol or drug use is likely affecting the lives of everyone around them. As a parent, you may not know exactly what to do to help your son or daughter.

If your son or daughter is struggling with substance abuse, you may need to step in and play new roles. You may find yourself looking after your adult child’s affairs. Perhaps you have to work an extra job to take care of your grandchildren. Maybe your child has been in legal trouble and you’ve had to deal with the challenges that come with such issues.

In all of the chaos that surrounds your child’s addiction, perhaps you’ve lost touch with your feelings. It can be difficult to keep up with your self-care when you constantly have to spend time taking care of others.

But, you must take care of yourself. Get involved in support groups. Surround yourself with people who give you emotional support. If you can, seek family support and ask loved ones to help you.

Sometimes the best way to support a loved one who is suffering from substance abuse is from afar. If you need to distance yourself from your child to prevent enabling behaviors from taking hold again, do so. Once your daughter or son gets the necessary addiction treatment, you may be able to be a part of his or her life again.

There’s often a fine line between loving your child and enabling him or her. It can be difficult to avoid enabling your child. Again, enabling often happens unintentionally. It might come in the form of excusing your child’s behavior. Perhaps it’s financial support. In any case, it is important to discover any enabling patterns and behaviors in your life.

Avoiding these actions can help jumpstart your child’s addiction recovery. You can set boundaries to help your son or daughter. Doing so can play a role in encouraging your son or daughter to attend rehab.

Your son or daughter may be tempted to drink or use drugs if he or she finds these substances in the home. Keeping your child away from substances they might abuse is critical. Many teens and young adults begin experimenting with drugs and alcohol by getting into their parent’s medicine cabinets and alcohol inventories. You can help keep your child safe by keeping substances away from them.

Again, you may want to speak directly with your child about his or her substance abuse problems. This may help your child to know that he or she is not alone. It can also open up the way for healthy communication between you and your child.

However, in many instances of addiction, approaching the struggling person alone may not produce desirable results. This is when an intervention may become necessary. You may need to hold an intervention along with family members, friends, and a professional interventionalist. This meeting can encourage your daughter or son to seek help through drug and alcohol treatment programs.

Overcoming the disease of addiction is far from easy. Many parents of addicted individuals struggle to know how to help their kids.

Detoxification clears the body from the toxins of drugs and alcohol. It is often challenging for people to end drug or alcohol use due to the symptoms of withdrawal that occur. A medical detox process can help people as they go through withdrawal. The pain, mental challenges, and emotional struggles that often occur during withdrawal can become more bearable with the help of medical detox.

A residential alcohol and drug rehab program will allow individuals to work through recovery while living at a treatment facility. This can be extremely beneficial for those who struggle with self-control, have an unhealthy home environment, or need around-the-clock access to care.

Inpatient treatment programs can be essential to the healing process as it allows people to develop a healthy life away from the challenges that may face them in the outside world. This can make all the difference for those who are striving to recover from addiction.

An outpatient treatment program allows recovering individuals to receive help for addiction without living at a treatment facility. People can work through recovery while living at home or in a sober living environment.

Make no mistake, however; outpatient treatment still provides the necessary support for those who are working through recovery from substance misuse. This type of treatment program still enables people to receive comprehensive treatment for substance abuse.

Therapy for substance misuse is a significant component of a healthy recovery journey. Addiction has negative effects on the brain and body. Counseling addresses those areas, helping people to develop healthy ways of thinking and behaving. Therapy allows people in recovery to discuss their challenges in a judgment-free zone. It provides a place for people to establish a healthy peer group, process trauma, deal with stress, and more.