Enabling Behaviors

No one wants to see their loved one suffer; however, sometimes when we’re trying to help, we end up further enabling the addiction. This can be a hard truth to accept, especially when we would never want to knowingly do something like that. By becoming aware of these enabling behaviours, we can do a better job at constructively helping our addicted loved ones. Right Path Drug Rehab wants to see all of our clients succeed and thrive. We hope that these suggestions help you come up with helpful alternatives when it comes to interacting with your loved one.

1. Let’s talk about compensating for the behavior. What does this mean? Perhaps your loved one has promised you that he or she is going to find a job but insists a computer is necessary to look for one. Did you give him or a her a laptop? Was it later sold for drug money? Maybe they asked to borrow your car to get to work but crashed it while driving under the influence. Of course you want your loved one to find a job and succeed in life. You don’t want him or her to suffer, but here’s the truth of it: when you take away their suffering, you are also taking away their opportunity to make a real change.

1. What about lying and covering things up? Do you ever hide things for your loved one or partner? Do you make excuses to his or her boss as to why they didn’t come into work while hungover? Maybe you’re afraid that if he or she gets fired, you’ll lose the house and have to move. What is motivating you to do this? Are you doing it for your loved one or for yourself? You might have to think about the possibility of not remaining in a relationship with this person. It may be difficult, but it is important to understand the reality of the situation.

1. Do you tend to interfere? It might seem like a great idea to pour the alcohol down the drain or flush the bottle of pills; however, all this will do is force your loved one to get more creative about hiding their substance abuse. It will do nothing to stop it. In fact, it will only challenge them to become a better addict. As much as you may want them to understand the reason you are doing it is to prevent more harm, this is not something that they will recognize at this time.

It is extremely important that your loved one learns how to take responsibility for his or her own actions. They will never be able to do this as long as you continue to enable them in any way. Right Path Drug Rehab doesn’t think you would ever do anything to willingly harm your loved one. We just want to take the opportunity to educate people on how the mind of the addict works.  By letting your loved one begin to experience the unpleasant results of their addiction, you will be helping them more than ever. When the person you care for is ready to seek treatment, contact one of our helpful intake coordinators with any questions you may have about our wide array of addiction treatment programs.