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* Plan an intervention. You need to set up a time to sit down with the addict and tell her frankly that you will no longer provide the support you have been giving. * Involve a third party to help you get the drug addict into treatment. By incorporating a third party, such as an interventionist, you will ensure that the addict takes you seriously. This person can help clarify the reality that you are about to start withholding support from the addict and that his only alternative is treatment. * Be prepared for a fight. You obviously care about the drug addict, but by offering support (monetary, emotional, legal), you are enabling her to continue on a path of self-destruction. The addict will put up a fight when you tell her you are going to withhold these supports. * Force the drug addict to accept responsibility for his behavior. By eliminating your support, you are making the addict own up to the consequences of his actions. This is the only way to help him stop taking drugs and get the needed help. * Eliminate your readiness to pick up the debris of the addict's life, to bail him out or to supply her with financial assistance. The disease of drug addiction will kill the addict and you must recognize that you are not helping her by supporting her on any level with respect to her addiction. Treatment is the only answer, and your refusal to support her in any other choice is imperative.
How Can Enabling Hurt an Addict?
Enabling means to make able or possible, to give power. It is a major environmental factor in addiction. Enabling occurs when a concerned family member allows the addict to continue in their disease by preventing them from experiencing the negative consequences of their behavior. Enabling is a way for the concerned loved one to protect themselves and avoid facing the painful consequences that can be brought on by an addict's behavior.
In order to help the addict and stop the enabling the following is recommended:
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