The struggle of addiction can fundamentally change even the most resolute of people. While that pain, destruction and misery transforms the addicted in numerous ways, the pain doesn’t stop there. It ricochets outward, impacting friends and family just as badly. When a loved one suffers from addiction, the effects can be felt in conversation, in finances and any other aspect of life. Especially difficult is the pain that a parent faces when their child is experiencing an addiction to opiates. It can make a person feel hopeless, but there is always hope.
Avoid Harmful Enabling
While it can be extremely difficult to say no, parents must understand how crucial it is to avoid enabling an opiate addiction. The most common form of enabling is to provide money for someone who is obviously going to purchase opiates with it. With the end goal being to convince your child to enter an opiate rehab or treatment program, it’s not possible to simultaneously enable the behavior and produce results. Many addicts will lash out when cut off from the avenues that enable their behavior, but providing your child with the means to sustain their opiate addiction is potentially akin to signing their death warrant.
Create an Environment of Support
It’s crucial that your loved one understands that you will do everything you can to support their recovery. It can sometimes be difficult for someone undergoing opiate addiction to accept this if you have subsequently cut them off from receiving money or other benefits that enable them. Nevertheless, it’s important that they understand there is support available for them when they’re ready. Likewise, it is important for you, the parent, to have a support system of your own. Whether you join a local organization that specializes in such struggles or attempt to build a family-based support structure, you need support for this struggle just as much as your child.
Accept the Potential Realities
It may not be easy to hear or accept, but an opiate addict’s travels will often lead them down one or more of three routes. The first is incarceration. Whenever somebody struggles to fulfil their demand for opiates, they may resort to crimeto line their pockets. This is a prime area where parents may feel guilty if they have ceased enabling their child’s behavior – do not feel guilty. The second pathway is overdose, which is more common among opiate users than many people realize. The third possibility is death – usually brought on by an overdose that isn’t treated in time. It can be difficult to read about these possibilities and accept them, but coping realistically with the struggles of an opiate addict requires you to be strong.
Inevitably, this struggle is mentally taxing for parents and can feel like a nightmare. It is important to understand that anybody suffering from addiction must first want to change, or else the allure of opiates will always bring them back. By ensuring that you’re not an enabler, obtaining support and social interaction to assist with the fear and stress, you can do what you need to for yourself as a parent while being open and supportive of your children during this time of struggle.
