It can be extremely difficult to deal with addiction issues of a loved one. You may see someone every day of your life, know them better than anyone else, and still feel like you’re losing them. If they are your spouse, child, parent or another family member, you don’t want to say the wrong thing. In this blog, we’ll discuss ways to tell if someone you love is suffering from addiction, as well as what you can do about it. Now more than ever, people are turning to a holistic rehab approach that enhances comfort and trust among patients afflicted with addiction.
Holistic Rehab Tips
When we think of a person who needs to go to rehab, it’s natural to think of examples from television and movies. You may think that someone needs to go to rehab if they have that one dramatic, “rock bottom” moment – crashing a car while drunk, or striking a loved one while high. But many times an addiction is present and hurting an individual long before any major event happens.
When someone you love is suffering from addiction, you don’t want them to have to get to the lowest moment in their life before they decide to take steps towards a positive change. Indeed, essentially all addicts will continue to use regardless of the negative consequences. Even if they wreck that car while drunk, or hit someone they love while high or something similar, they will still likely continue to use.
Multiple Kinds of Loss of Control
When we say that someone has “lost control,” it can mean many different things. For someone that’s an addict, it could mean that they drink too much alcohol, or use too many illegal drugs. Obviously, when someone uses any illegal drugs, you want them to stop, but that’s different than using too much. It can be harder to tell with someone who drinks too much. Alcohol, as opposed to illegal drugs, is legal. Most people without an addiction to alcohol drink too much occasionally. How can you tell if your loved one is drinking too much?
The keyword is obviously “occasionally.” If their loss of control becomes a pattern, then they in all likelihood have a problem. It could be that they drink basically every night and then into the day. Perhaps their drinking has started to cause more and more problems in their life. If they don’t stop drinking except to pass out, then you can conclude that they have a problem and then it’s time to get them into rehab.
Another way that someone you love could “lose control” in the context of an addiction is what they’ll do to try and get the addiction. To use the example of alcohol, maybe your loved one now goes to the lengths of hiding alcohol in their desk during work. Perhaps they hide it in a flask so that they can drink during work meetings. Perhaps they take an extra long lunch so that they can go to a bar to drink during the workday, that kind of thing. The risks that an addict could take to try and get illegal drugs can be extraordinary. The further they go in pursuit of their addiction, the more they could need help.
Tolerance, in Addiction and Relationship
As you probably know, the more a person uses drugs and alcohol, the more of a “tolerance” they build up. What got them drunk or high before now doesn’t do it for them – they have to drink more and use more to get that feeling. Their body adapts to the substance. If you can see this pattern in your loved one, they may need help. If you see them unable to get drunk or high using what they were in the past, then it’s time to get pro help.
Another way you can tell they could use rehab is if their using negatively affects their relationships. When someone is in the throes of addiction, they tend to lash out to those closest to them. It can be very hard to realize, but it isn’t your fault nor is it their’s. Addiction is a disease, you didn’t cause it and neither did they.
Iris Healing Retreat Holistic Rehab
The best thing you can do if you suspect that someone you love has an addiction is to reach out to a reputable Holistic Rehab Center. At Iris Healing Retreat, our expert staff can conduct what’s called an “individual screening.” That way, you can know definitively, once and for all, if your loved one has an addiction. To set this up, or to learn more about the process, check out our site or call us at (818) 435-3936.