When you lose someone that is close to you, getting past the grief can be difficult and can take a very long time. So, how to you get past that grief without it consuming you? When I lost my husband to a car accident, I struggled for months trying to find my footing. I missed a lot of work, couldn't pay my bills and had a difficult time getting out of bed each morning. That was until I began going to grief counseling. This was one thing that I never thought that I would do, but it has helped me in so many ways. To learn about some of the tools that I have been using to get past this difficult time, visit my website.
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dealing with the grief of loss
Tips To Help A Loved One Break Free From An Addiction
Pedro Carr
Helping a family member who is struggling with a drug addiction can be overwhelming, sad, and frustrating, until he or she decides to get help. At that point, this person's life could change for the better, especially if he or she decides to get the right types of help. Substance abuse counseling is one option that can help tremendously, but there are several things you may want to keep in mind as you help this family member break free from the chains of a drug addiction.
It often requires multiple types of treatment
The first thing to understand as you help your family member is that one form of treatment is not always enough. In other words, if your family member is ready to get help, you should encourage multiple types of help. This can include:
- Counseling – Seeking help through individual substance abuse counseling is a great way to start the process. Counseling at a place like Headwaters Counseling can help your relative understand the reasons for the addiction, the effects of it, and ways to begin thinking differently.
- Medical help – Many addictions occur when people have emotional disorders and conditions. For the person to truly break the addiction, medication to treat the emotional condition might be needed.
- Support from family – You may want to offer help to your loved one too; however, you should avoid enabling him or her. An example of this is if the addict needs food. To help your relative you should give him or her food; enabling the person would be giving him or her money to buy the food. Enabling is not good for an addict, but helping them better themselves is.
Getting one form of treatment may be a good start, but when a drug addict is receiving various forms of treatment every day his or her chances of staying drug-free might be higher.
Changing the environment is often necessary
The second tip to consider is that your relative might benefit from a change of environment. It can be easy to relapse with any type of addiction when the environment remains the same prior to and after breaking it. You may want to do all you can to change the following aspects of this person's life to help him or her recover from the addiction:
- Home – If possible, help this person move to a new place. This could be with you in your house, with another relative, or in his or her own apartment.
- Friends – Encouraging this person to break away from old friends and make new friends could be a detrimental factor to his or her recovery.
- Hangouts – Changing where an addict hangs out is also a vital change that needs to be discussed and worked through.
Breaking any kind of addiction is hard, but it can be done. If you want to help a loved one do this, you should be available to this person and show him or her love and support. You can also help by finding a substance abuse counseling center for him or her to go to.
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