How to Help Someone Quit Drugs | Coping with a Loved One’s Drug Addiction

How can I help a drug addict quit?

This is such a common question, yet it’s also a complex, difficult one. Ultimately you can’t control whether or not a drug addict stops using, but there are some things you can do both for them and to help yourself cope.

When you have a loved one who’s struggling with drugs it can take an immense emotional toll on you. Drug addiction doesn’t just impact the addict, it impacts everyone around that person, and as you’re wondering how to help someone quit drugs, you may find that you’re neglecting your own needs.

Some of the common feelings loved ones of addicts experience include anger, resentment, worry, fear, anxiety, helplessness, and depression. You want to be able to help your loved one, but it’s very easy for that to become enabling them. There’s also the sense that if you set boundaries and exhibit tough love, you’re somehow not empathetic or sympathetic to the addict.

Loved ones of addicts are often the victims of the manipulation that’s bred by addiction. Addicts have one focus in their lives, and that’s using drugs. They may have once been a sensitive, loving person, but as addiction takes hold this comes to an end and they’re self-absorbed and entirely driven by their desire to continue using. The disease of addiction is a difficult and complicated one, and it ultimately changes the brain of the addict, which is why they act out in certain ways and become so focused on their addiction.

While addiction is a disease, it is up to the individual to seek treatment. Addiction can be viewed as a chronic disease, and with treatment it is manageable, and the addict can live a fulfilling life, but you have to know first and foremost that you can’t force someone into treatment, nor can you do the work of recovery for them.