Steps to be a good support system for your addicted friend

Do you have a friend who is struggling with addiction, and you don’t know how to help them? In this post, you will learn how you can support your friend and cheer them on to sobriety.

It is important to mention that moments like this often reveal the meaning of true friendship. Here are some of the ways you can be a support system for your addicted friend.

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Learn more about addiction

One of the important steps to becoming a good support system is to educate yourself more on what addiction entails.

Many people find it hard to be there for their loved ones because they don’t know what addiction means. You need to know that addiction is a brain disease that can affect the normal functioning of the individual’s brain.

Don’t judge or criticize them

Some people make the mistake of criticizing or judging their friends because they are addicted. And most times, it is done ignorantly.

When you judge an addict, you are not helping them get better. Some addicts may decide to even remain in their addiction state and not seek help because they want to get back at you. Hence, instead of judging them, show them love, and care for them.

Encourage them to seek addiction treatment help

Another way to be a good support system for your friend struggling with addiction is to motivate them to seek treatment. You need to be careful when doing this so that it doesn’t look like you’re forcing them.

Let them know that their condition could have adverse effects but that they can get treated and begin a new life. They might not accept your points initially, so you have to be patient with them until they agree to seek help from a professional.

Don’t indulge them

If you want your friend to break free from addiction, it is important not to indulge them. This means you have to play your part to ensure that they don’t encounter anything that will fuel their addiction.

Signs That Your Loved One is Addicted

Seeing a loved one become addicted to drugs or alcohol is painful. So, when we see a loved one struggling with the misuse of drugs we often worry if he/she is addicted or not. We must identify addiction early, especially in loved ones so we can help them get treatment early.

Therefore, this article will pinpoint some signs which indicate that your loved one is addicted. Note that these signs cannot be considered alone, but all work together to identify addiction. And although these signs do not apply to all situations of addiction, there is a high chance that it is addiction.

So, these signs of addiction include;

  • Physical Changes

This is the most pronounced sign of addiction. Excessive use of substances and continuous use of such substances causes a person to neglect other aspects of his/her life. Such a person is focused on consuming that drug or alcohol and neglects food, how he/she looks, etc.

So, their physical appearance is affected either by weight loss. Or they begin to look shabby and unkempt due to negligence. If you notice this in a loved one, it could be a sign of addiction.

  • Psychological Changes

An addict also experiences psychological changes. The chemicals in the drugs affect their hormones causing depression, lack of interest in things. Sometimes, they even begin to have frequent mood swings.

  • Performance Reduction

If a loved one begins to have a sudden slump in performance, it could be due to addiction. This can be a performance slump at work or in school, where the person isn’t as efficient as he/she is known to be. So, watch out for this sign in loved ones.

  • Change in Sleeping Habit

Addiction also affects people’s sleeping habits. It causes them to neglect sleep, go long hours without sleep, or oversleep due to excessive fatigue. This is another sign of addiction.

  • Withdrawal

When a loved one begins to withdraw both emotionally and physically from everyone else, it could be due to addiction. They become afraid of rejection and reproach and prefer to hide from everyone. So, they avoid social gatherings and withdraw from friends and family, often abruptly.

These are some signs which indicate that a loved one is addicted. But do not be alarmed at one. Check if the others are present in the person’s behavior and if they are, seek adequate help for him/her.

QUALITIES OF A SUPERB ADDICTION TREATMENT PROGRAM

Different treatment plans exist depending on the type of addiction, insurance plan, financial capability, family inclusion and so on, therefore finding the right treatment plan that caters to your needs and that of your family is all too important.  This can be quite overwhelming but fear not, this article is here to help you make your choice. What qualities should you look out for? 

  1. Comprehensive Assessment and Treatment Matching

An effective treatment begins with a proper and valid screening and assessment for a range of substance use disorders and related conditions.

This is followed by a more comprehensive assessment of substance use history and related disorders, medical history, psychiatric history, individual’s family and social networks, and assessment of available recovery resources. This is necessary to help uncover the many interrelated and underlying factors affecting the patient’s functioning and aspects that could compromise the recovery process.

2. A well-educated team:

A facility run by an addiction treatment expert with a master’s or doctorate licensing or board certification is your best bet at getting all round, research and evidence based effective treatment.

An inpatient drug and alcohol rehab program should have a multidisciplinary staff as well as a medical doctor who would be responsible for the physical health of the person as well as administering any prescriptions the patients require.

3. Frequent Individual and group counseling sessions

Effective treatment programs should also include frequent one-on-one counseling sessions for participants provided by trained addiction experts. Group therapy also serves to form relationships, build lifelong bonds, bring a wide range of experiences and perspective to the entire group and an added layer of accountability.

4. Comprehensive, Integrated Treatment Approach

Addiction disorders and mental illnesses are not mutually exclusive. Given these high odds of suffering from a dual diagnosis, it is very important that a top inpatient addiction treatment program be equipped to treat co-occurring disorders.

Dual diagnosis treatment is associated with better outcomes including: Improved quality of life, reduced substance use, decreased hospitalizations, Improved psychiatric symptoms, Increased housing stability, Fewer arrests.

5. Long-term approach

Research has documented that recovery rates improve dramatically when a long-term treatment plan is in place.  according to The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) residential or outpatient programs should consist of a minimum of 90 days.

This approach usually begins with an inpatient or intensive outpatient care and extends a sober living program, a relapse prevention program depending on the individual’s needs.

6.  Evidence-based therapies

Many types of therapies are used to treat substance addictions and mental disorders. The best programs offer programs that use evidenced-based treatment modalities. SAMSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) defines Evidence-based programs as, “programs that have been shown to have positive outcomes through high-quality research.”

When researching a treatment program, in addition to asking what types of therapies are offered, you want to know that their use is based on research.

7. Nutritionally focused

Addiction often goes hand-in-hand with a poor diet. It harms the body and the brain and weakens the immune system This can leave the person underweight, overweight, or with bad skin. Good nutrition can reverse these conditions and improve physical appearance. This can help boost self-confidence and self-esteem.  An excellent rehab program includes a Medical Nutritional Therapy (MNT) plan. Addiction.

8. Physical fitness/ Exercise

 Various forms of exercise offer different benefits. Aerobic exercise, such as running, actually increases the neuron reserves in the part of the brain that is responsible for learning. In addition to increasing the ability to learn, regular exercise relieves stress and tension which makes it easier for individuals to release negative emotions.

It also releases endorphins. Endorphins are nature’s “feel good” hormone and offer a natural high that is free of the negative risks of drugs. Lastly, exercise increases self-confidence and optimism, as well as lowers rates of depression and anxiety.

9. A family program

Addiction not only impacts the individual but the entire family suffers.  sometimes family members assume certain roles in the family just to cope with the situation. Healing the family prepares the family to better support the person in recovery and sobriety and prevent addiction from spreading to other family members or future generations.

10. Personalized Approaches that include Specialized Populations, Gender and Cultural Competence

Stemming from individualized comprehensive screening and assessment, programs should treat all patients as individuals attending to their needs accordingly. One size does not fit all, and neither does one treatment approach work for every individual.

High-quality treatment programs identify the potentially different needs of men and women, adolescents versus adults, and those from different minority communities (e.g. LGBT) or cultural backgrounds, creating in turn, treatment and recovery plans that address their specific needs and acknowledge their available strengths and recovery resources.

11. External Accreditation from Nationally Recognized Quality Monitoring Agencies                            

Accreditation from external regulatory organizations such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare organizations (JCAHO; aka “the Joint Commission”), the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), and the Council on Accreditation (COA); and other programs licensed by the state are required to offer minimum levels of evidence-based care.

These licensing and accreditation requirements serve as quality assurance that the treatment program is incorporating a certain level of evidence-based care in its model and is open to random audit of its clinical care.

11. Connection-building activities among clients

 Addiction also isolates a person emotionally therefore establishing strong emotional connections and bonds pave the way for a healthier life. An excellent treatment program encourages and fosters camaraderie among clients.

The success of an addict’s recovery is as good as his/her treatment plan.

Importance of aftercare treatment

Receiving treatment for addiction is one of the best decisions that could be taken. However, this is not where the story ends. It is important to maintain that sobriety on a continuum but often times, relapse happens.

When an individual relapses, it means the person has gone back to his addicted lifestyle. Now, a relapse does not mean that addiction treatment was not successful. It simply means that the individual has not been fully equipped to cope with triggers and cravings that constitute addiction.

In addition, it also implies that the individual did not approach life circumspectly, considering the fact that a good number of things must have changed while he was in rehab.

Aftercare treatment comes in handy because it helps to prevent relapse. And advisably, it is best to commence aftercare treatment immediately after addiction treatment. This is what a good rehab would typically do; in their addiction treatment schedule, the aftercare program would have been integrated.

Aftercare treatment equips the recovering individual with skills that helps to conquer cravings and triggers. It is usually a transition phase for the individual because the program helps him to settle down and adjust to the new pace of life.

In addition, the aftercare treatment helps an individual to live a healthy life. The individual would be taught various healthy practices that would help to keep his life on track. Without these healthy practices, the individual might find it hard to combat cravings and triggers.

The aftercare treatment comes in handy to reduce the possibility of a relapse which happens in like 2 in every 5 recovered individuals. However, with the counselor, therapists and loved ones who continually show their care and support, the individual would do fine.

To wrap it up, an aftercare treatment is an integral part of the entire addiction treatment phase. For an individual to live a healthy life that is rid of addiction, the aftercare treatment phase must be fully committed to.

Function of your loved ones during addiction treatment

When an individual leads an addicted lifestyle, the people that are affected the most are his loved ones. Typically, they would not see eye-to-eye on various issues because of their addiction problem. Due to the fact that people who are addicted are stigmatized, they would naturally be on the offensive side.

If the loved ones of an individual do not give their support to their addicted family member, there is a tendency that the addiction problem would become worse. In fact, the individual would not be encouraged to enter for addiction treatment because there is no support.

On the other hand, one of the fastest ways for an individual to successfully beat addiction, is the help of his loved ones. It is the responsibility to show love and care to their addicted family member, which would spur him to enter for treatment.

During addiction treatment, the loved ones still have a role to play. Bear in mind that, loved ones in this scenario refer to family and friends. This does not mean that other categories of people like acquaintances, co-workers and the likes are left out.

What happens is, family and friends are the closest groups of people that can encourage and spur an individual on to seek treatment. If these groups of people are absent, it would be difficult for anyone else to motivate the addicted individual to seek help.

When an individual enters for addiction treatment, the counselor helps to provide a platform where the loved ones can still play a pivotal role. For instance, the loved ones would be required to attend group therapy sessions, where they can learn more about addiction and how to care for their loved ones.

At the end of the day, when the individual is discharged from rehab, his loved ones have a crucial role to play in helping him settle down into the society. This stage is somewhat challenging because of the chances of relapse. But with proper care, the individual would do fine.