Addiction takes over not only our lives but the lives of everyone who cares about us. It causes our loved ones to be consumed with worry and fear about our safety and wellbeing. They might stage an intervention, give an ultimatum, or distance themselves altogether. We tend to think of how our addiction affects us, and how the changes in our relationships impact us, but how does it affect our loved ones?
Just as addiction can cause us depression and anxiety, our family members and friends can also experience them pertaining to our addiction. It is extremely depressing, worrisome and scary to watch someone you love self-destruct. They’ve seen us hurt ourselves in many ways over the years. They can be overtaken with feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness that can come with knowing you can’t stop the people you love from slowly destroying themselves. They might give considerable time, money and energy to trying to help us, for us to turn around and push them away, fall into the same patterns, and relapse.
Addiction can have lasting impacts on the lives of our loved ones. Many of us have lied to, manipulated and coerced them. We may have convinced them the money they were giving us was going to helping us get clean when in reality we were just scoring more drugs. We might have stolen money from them. We might have incurred debts they are responsible for. Our addiction can have not only emotional ramifications but financial and logistical ones as well. Our families and friends can find themselves having to deal with everything from stolen cars to bail money, to having to raise our children because we’re too strung out to be able to. Our addictions can bring another level of conflict and difficulty to the lives of our loved ones.
Our addictions can make us distance ourselves from our loved ones. We pull away from them when they’re concerned about us because we want to be left alone. We stop talking to them when they confront us with their worries. Our chemical dependencies can make us increasingly volatile, unstable and hostile. Our loved ones have to deal with not only worrying about our wellbeing but also missing us, losing their connection to us, and feeling the loss of our presence in their lives. This can be really sad and very difficult for them, contributing to their depression and anxiety. Dealing with daily life can become increasingly emotionally difficult for our loved ones as long as our addictions are running our lives.
At Vista Taos, we welcome family involvement in the treatment process because we know how beneficial it can be to your recovery. We offer family support seminars for loved ones as part of our treatment programs. Call us today at (575) 613-4810 for more information.
