3 Tips for Helping A Family Member Start The Addiction Recovery Process

Going through life with someone who has an addiction can be tough. Not only can this have a huge impact on their life as the addict, but it can also affect you as a friend or family member. Addiction tends to take over the lives of everyone involved with the addicted person, leaving everyone emotionally, physically, and financially drained. So when your loved one decides that he or she is ready to begin the addiction recovery process, it can often seem too good to be true. This surprise can leave you feeling helpless as your loved one begins a new path. So to help you and your loved one get through this process successfully, here are three tips for helping a family member start the addiction recovery process.

Educate Yourself

If your loved one has been an addict for a while, you likely know a decent amount about their disease and how to handle it. However, you might not have much experience or done much research regarding overcoming this addiction in a real sense. For this reason, Promises.com recommends educating yourself as much as possible regarding things like treatments available and ways to avoid relapse. This can help you be an actual force for good in this person’s life and keep them on the path of sobriety. You can gain this education either by doing your own research, participating with your loved one during the recovery process, or speaking to a healthcare professional.

Create and Maintain A Substance-Free Environment

Once your loved one is no longer in treatment for their addiction, you can now be of more help creating and maintaining an environment that will help them remain sober. This is going to be one of the most important things you can do as a loved one of a recovering addict, because outside of treatment, there are a lot of temptations. FoundationsRecoveryNetwork.com suggests doing everything you can to keep the environment surrounding your loved one free and clear of any triggers for their addiction. This might mean changing your lifestyle to avoid all indications of that addictive substance.

Know Other Problems Follow Addiction

To think that everything will be fine once your loved one leaves treatment isn’t realistic. The editorial staff of Recovery.com shares that along with the immediate effects of addiction, financial problems, health problems, and relationship problems also come about as a result of an addiction. These are problems that will all need to be faced during the recovery process, which can be very difficult. Any assistance or support you can give in these areas will also be greatly beneficial to your loved one.

If you have a friend or family member on the verge of addiction recovery, use the tips mentioned above to help them stay sober throughout the rest of their life.