Are you struggling with how to help someone with drug addiction, alcohol abuse, or other addictive behaviors?
The following are some resources to help yourself, as well your loved one:
Al-Anon Family Group and Message Board: Al-Anon is a worldwide fellowship that offers a program of recovery for the families and friends of alcoholics, whether the alcoholic is still drinking or not. Members gain comfort and understanding through sharing their experience, strength and hope. Al-Anon is based on the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous. Al-Anon is a separate fellowship from AA.
Caregiver syndrome or caregiver stress is a condition of exhaustion, anger, rage, or guilt that results from caring for others. Typical symptoms of the caregiver include: fatigue, insomnia, stomach complaints, and so on, with the most common symptom being depression.
CareGiver Burnout: If you want to avoid burnout, check out some of these resources that can help you with caregiving:
~ How to Beat Caregiver Stress Syndrome and Stay Healthy. Call it the long shadow of caregiving: The sick person may stabilize, but the caregiver’s own health worsens. Or both decline and end up needing care. Sometimes the care recipient even outlives the caregiver.
CRAFT at Center for Motivation and Change: CRAFT~ Community Reinforcement and Family Training teaches family and friends effective strategies for helping their loved one to change and for feeling better themselves. CRAFT works to affect the loved one’s behavior by changing the way the family interacts with him or her. It is designed to accomplish three goals:
1. When a loved one is abusing substances and refusing to get help, CRAFT helps families move their loved one toward treatment.
2. CRAFT helps reduce the loved one’s alcohol and drug use, whether or not the loved one has engaged in treatment yet.
3. CRAFT improves the lives of the concerned family and friends.
CODA: Co-Dependents Anonymous, a fellowship of men and women whose common purpose is to develop healthy relationships. The only requirement for membership is a desire for healthy and loving relationships.
Recovery Patterns of Co-Dependency broken out by issue and healthy responses in areas such as denial, low self esteem, avoidance, control, and compliance: very useful tool to identify issue and ideas for positive actions and thoughts:
Grief and Loss: “Recover From Grief”: We present in our website a variety of creative mourning techniques; talking, writing, creating art, music or poetry, or memorializing are all good ways to express your bereavement. Explore our site to find the expressive techniques that feel “just right” for you.
SMART Recovery Family & Friends: helps those who are affected by the substance abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or other addictions of a loved one. Offers a science-based, secular alternative to Al-Anon and Johnson Intervention, based on the tools of SMART Recovery and CRAFT (Community Reinforcement Approach & Family Training) developed by Dr. Robert Meyers and featured on the popular HBO Addiction series.
When a loved One is Addicted ~ How Family and Friends Can Help: an Action Plan: you may have deep resentments toward loved one to overcome before you could undertake the pragmatic approach described here. Perhaps discussing this article with a friend, or a therapist, would help you move in that direction. We do not mean to suggest that your resentment is unfounded. But if he is stuck in drinking, and you are stuck in resentment, when will this picture ever change?
Talking with Your Loved One about Substance Abuse: Ultimately, approaching an addicted family member, spouse or child requires you to plan ahead. Here are five tips to facilitate a successful discussion:
Those Who Care About Another ~ Guidance for Concerned Significant Others: I came across this article and wanted to be able to easily read again and figured others could benefit from reading it as well. What really caught my attention was how the article helps one communicate calmly while exercising self care and setting boundaries.
Things To Do If Your Loved One Is Addicted To Drugs And/Or Alcohol……
1. Don’t regard this as a family disgrace. Addictive behavior is something all humans express to some degree or the other. When it it “Gets out of Hand”… Humans Can and DO make Changes.
2. Don’t nag, preach or lecture to the person. Chances are he/she has already told him or herself everything you can tell them. He/she will take just so much and shut out the rest. You may only increase their need to lie or force one to make promises that cannot possibly be kept.
3. Guard against the “holier-than-thou” or martyr-like attitude. It is possible to create this impression without saying a word. A person’s sensitivity is such that he/she judges other people’s attitudes toward him/her more by small things than spoken words……
10 Ways to Know It’s Time to Leave Your Relationship: When you are able to take loving care of yourself and make yourself happy, and if your relationship still suffers from one or more of the following symptoms, then it may be time to leave.
When It’s Time to Leave Your Alcoholic Mate: Deciding to walk away from a relationship is usually a difficult decision. In a “conventional” scenario it can be tough enough, but add in the element of substance abuse and there can be added stress.
