If you have a child that is struggling with an addiction to opiate drugs, you may find yourself feeling incredibly concerned and worried about your child's health and well-being. Many people know that opiate addictions are serious problems, but they might not know exactly how to help someone that is suffering from an active addiction. Learn some of the facts that you should know if you have a child that is struggling with an opiate addiction. Then, you can be sure that you give your child the best care and support you can through this ordeal.
Their Addiction Is Not Your Fault
The first thing you should know when you have a child with an opiate addiction is that their addiction is not your fault. As a parent, it can be easy to shoulder the blame for everything that happens to your children, from injuries to illnesses and everything in between. However, addiction and drug abuse are not something that you can take the blame for.
Do not beat yourself up over your child's addiction. Feeling guilty will not help fix the problem. It will only serve to make the situation worse for you and for your child. One of the biggest steps in overcoming an addiction is to take personal responsibility for your own actions and behaviors. If your child has it in their mind that you are somehow at fault for their addiction, they will struggle with and potentially fail this part of the recovery process.
You Need to Stop Enabling Them
Enabling an addiction refers to patterns of behaviors and thoughts that, in a way, allow the addiction and drug abuse to continue. This could be something as simple as giving an addict money (for food, rent, etc.) knowing that the money might go to drugs. It could also be making excuses for behavior, covering for them, and otherwise inadvertently allowing the addiction to continue.
If you are doing anything in your life that makes you an enabler, one of the steps you need to take in order to properly care for and support your child is to stop these behaviors. Do not make excuses for them. Do not ignore their behaviors.
Talk to them about their behavior. Be honest about the situation. Start trying to encourage positive behaviors, healthy choices, and start trying to guide them toward getting treatment for their opiate addiction, starting with a drug detoxification program at a facility like Evergreen Recovery Centers to get the opiates out of their system.
Now that you know a few of the things you should know when your child is struggling with an opiate addiction, you can start doing your best to support your child and help them overcome their addiction.
For a long time, I wasn't sure if my counseling was really working or not. It felt like no matter what I did, I just couldn't stay on top of my personal frustrations, so I started addressing those concerns with my counselor. I was able to find a counselor who really understood what I was up against, and it was really neat to talk with her about everything that I was having a hard time with. We chatted about everything in my life ranging from the initial issues I started having to my daily struggles at work, and I felt like those early talks were helping a lot. On this blog, find out more about working with counselors and making things right.