Unfortunately, addiction disorders do not discriminate. They don’t care if you’re wealthy or impoverished, educated or not, male or female, old or young, addiction can affect anyone at any point in their life. Most of us can relate to the addiction epidemic in the United States. Whether we have experienced addiction ourselves, or a friend or family member has, we can feel the effects. In any of these scenarios, addiction probably has or will hurt you. It damages relationships, physical and mental health, and the overall stability of the addicted person. One of the hardest things to recognize in the midst of dealing with someone else’s addiction is enabling behaviors. When you love someone so much, all you want to do is help them, Addiction voice recovery center helps in Drug and alcohol rehab treatment Center Florida. But what is really helping, and what is hurting when someone is struggling with substance abuse?
What is enabling?
Many people who are dealing with substance abuse are actually in denial that they have a problem at all, and one of the reasons for this denial can be that they have an enabler in their life. Enablers inadvertently communicate that the addicted person’s behavior is acceptable by supporting them in one way or another. Enabling behaviors can be extremely dangerous, not only for the addicted person but for their loved ones as well. Enabling discourages people from confronting their addiction with the level of attention and professional help it deserves to get healthy. It only postpones getting help or going to rehab, leaving more opportunities for physical, mental, and psychological harm to themselves and those around them. Holistic drug and alcohol treatment at the Rehabilitation center for drug addicts in Florida
Enabling behaviors are actions that actually protect the addicted person from their own actions. If you are allowing someone struggling with addiction to be dependent on you for housing, food, or other forms of support, you are indirectly supporting their bad habits. It can be a very difficult pill to swallow, but you are shielding them from feeling the negative effects of their addiction on their lifestyle. It is so easy to view these forms of support as loving because for anyone not addicted, they would be! But you must view these actions as prolonging their issues, and therefore, unloving.
A Few Examples of Enabling Behaviors:
- Ignoring the addicted person’s dangerous or harmful behaviors – this can include avoiding the conversation or denying the problem exists altogether
- Discomfort or unwillingness to express emotions. Oftentimes, people can fall into enabling simply because they are unsure how to express their emotions to someone they love about such a difficult topic
- Prioritizing an addict’s wants and needs over their own. It is natural to want to help the people you love, but enabling goes a step further by meeting the needs of an addict at the enabler’s own expense.
How to Stop Enabling
Once in the habit of enabling an addict, it can be a difficult process to stop. It requires you to adopt new boundaries that the addict is not used to. This can inevitably create a difficult adjustment period, but it is well worth it. Here are a few of those boundaries to set:
- Don’t lie for anyone, especially an addict.
- Don’t make excuses for an addict not meeting their obligations or fulfilling their responsibilities.
- Do not clean up after an addict. They need to learn to recognize the messes they make, and sometimes the only way this will happen is if they have to face these messes themselves.
- Do not pay an addict’s bills.
- Fixing another person is not your responsibility.
If you or a loved one struggle with addiction, Beachcomber Delray is here to help. Call us today for more information at 561-658-1729.