How to Help an Addict

If you want to know how to help a drug addict then here are some things that you can do:

1) Help yourself first - the first thing you should do in order to help a drug addict in your life is to get some help for yourself first. This might sound a bit strange if you are really trying to help someone else, but it is important that you learn more about the disease of addiction and come to a solid understanding of what needs to happen in order for that person to get better.

The best suggestion for this is for you to go to an Al-Anon meeting. The people there can help teach you about how to behave so that you are not enabling the addict in your life. If you do not learn how to do this then chances are that you will continue to enable the addict in some small way and this will not push them any closer to making a real change in their life. Therefore, you should get help for yourself first and in doing so you will learn how to better help the addict.

2) Set healthy boundaries - you need to set some limits and boundaries with the drug addict in your life so that you are both protecting yourself, as well as to move them closer to surrender. You see the idea is that you do not have to be a doormat for someone else who is using drugs. You do not have to put up with outrageous behavior. Put your foot down and let them know what it unacceptable behavior to you, and let them know what the consequences of those behaviors will be. Do not make idle threats and do not promise anything that you do not fully intend on following through with. If you are saying that you will move out then be prepared to move out. It is important that you be consistent with this.

3) Do not deny them their pain - this is another important concept in helping a drug addict. Typically their behavior and their actions will bring pain and chaos into their life. If you are involved with them, then you are probably used to trying to control their life and help put out some of these fires. Stop doing this. If the addict is going to change and get to a point of surrender then they are going to get there by going through enough pain. No one decides to change their whole life when things are going good. They only do this when things are going very, very bad. So your job is to let the bad things happen. This does not mean that you have to maliciously try to trip them when they are walking down the road. It only means that you will now allow them to experience all the pain that they bring on to themselves. If you can do this consistently then it will help establish proper boundaries and also move them closer to reaching that life-changing surrender.