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Enabling Addiction and How to Prevent it

Enabling Addiction and How to Prevent it Resurgence Behavioral Health

Are You Enabling A Drug Addict?

Are you a friend or family member of a drug addict? Any person that has been in that situation will tell you that they can feel at a loss when it comes to determining the best way to help their loved one that is struggling with an addiction. Without the proper guidance when it comes to the best way to help, however, you may find yourself in a position where you are actually enabling your drug addict instead of helping them.

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What is Enabling?

There are several ways that a person inadvertently enables an addiction. When a person is enabling a drug addict, they are unknowingly compounding their addiction. Instead of finding the right channels to assist the person that is struggling with addiction. As a result, an enabler tends to compensate for the addiction of the person that they care about which can actually encourage the addiction instead of curtailing it. More often than not, an enabler is not knowingly hurting their loved one but they are trying to do what they think is best to help the person that they care about.

Disregarding Their Addictive Behaviors

There are several family members that are unable to deal with the impact of their loved one being a drug addict. It’s an understandable reaction. They want to maintain their relationship with their loved one which results in them looking the other way when it comes to light that the drug addict in their life has engaged in some type of negative or risky behavior. It’s rationalized by saying that at least they weren’t seriously harmed or potentially killed. However, not addressing these dangerous patterns could lead to the addict believing that these types of behavior are acceptable which can lead to further issues.

Defending Their Actions

Another mistake that family members or friends make when it comes to the addictive nature of their loved ones is to make excuses for it. For instance, if the drug addict in their life loses their job as a result of their addiction, an enabler may defend their actions by stating that that job wasn’t worth it anyway or that they can find something better or different. This could translate into the addict believing that it was something else that caused him or her to lose their job as opposed to their drug addiction. Instead of taking responsibility, the fault of the situation is pushed off on something else through your thinking.

Expressing Empty Threats

Many people mistakenly believe that simply making a threat of possible consequences is enough to manipulate a drug addict into sobriety. The reality is that the only person that can make the decision to stop using drugs is the drug addict. However, there are certain things that you can do to protect yourself from the emotional, or even physical, ramifications of their decisions. If the person that is struggling with an addiction crosses a line and you have already made the consequences of this decision clear, it’s critical that you stick with those consequences.

Addiction Recovery at Resurgence Behavioral Health is available not only to assist drug addicts in overcoming their addiction but also to friends or family members who are interested in learning more about the disease of addiction. If you would like to learn more about our treatment programs or about addiction in general and what you can do to help your loved one that may be suffering from this disease, please get in touch with us today at (855) 458-0050.

Addiction Treatment that
Just Works

Individualized treatment programs delivered in a comfortable, relaxed setting promote healing in your recovery journey.

David Rofofsky
David Rofofsky
After growing up in New York, David chose to get help with substance abuse in California because of the state's reputation for top-tier treatment. There, he found the treatment he needed to achieve more than nine years of recovery. He's been in the drug and alcohol addiction rehab industry for eight years and now serves as the Director of Admissions for Resurgence Behavioral Health. David remains passionate about the field because he understands how hard it is to pick up the phone and ask for help. However, once the call is made, someone's life can be saved.


Research | Editorial

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