The tip number one from any former drug addicts is to arm yourselves with patience. Drug addictions cannot be cured overnight, especially if the addiction is long-standing. It is a crippling passion that completely breaks the person’s will, wrecking their psyche and undermining the physiological functions of a human body.
Patience is needed in the struggle for living a life free of drug abuse. After all, anyone who dares to quit the habit will have to face such things as:
- Bouts of severe irritability;
- Aggressiveness towards others;
- Painful withdrawal symptoms.
Throughout the long journey to a healthy life, it is important for a drug-dependent person to not forget about the goal they pursue, i.e., to stop taking drugs and do it for their own benefit. For a person with drug addiction issues, this is an extremely difficult task to accomplish, because from time to time this goal will fade into the background due to an uncontrollable craving for a “fix” again and backsliding into the habit.
The most important thing on the path of healing from addiction is to realize your problem and put your mind on overcoming it. Therefore, the first thing to learn is to keep this goal in mind all the time, have it imprinted there, and regularly remind yourself why the decision to give up drugs was taken.
According to former addicts, a drug-dependent person is a person “with a blocked soul.”
Sometimes it is extremely difficult to get through to such a person. The addict tunes out and does not respond or react, nor would they consider any solid arguments that might frighten them; no matter the amount of pleading or tears from family members. The desire of a drug addict for returning to a clean life can only be awakened by a situation created by the patient’s relatives and friends.
Remember: Drug addicts can only get rid of their addiction when they are ready for it, no matter what you tell them or do to them. They have to quit under their own efforts.
The person must realize that they are losing everything in their life.
Consider seeking professional help. There are organizations that support people with drug addiction issues and their family members. Such organizations set up and hold meetings to help people better understand how to behave around an addicted person and what helpful steps to take.
Important: Your own simple advice can only harm a drug addict.
Thus, self-medication with antidepressants or sleeping pills is considered the most dangerous move that “helpers” can make. Giving the wrong type of antidepressant or sleeping pill, the wrong dose or duration of therapy, often provoke acute psychosis, panic attacks, hallucinations, or suicide attempts.
There are other dangers involved here, such as:
- Poisoning from overdose of analgesics and sleeping pills, especially their combinations;
- Unpredictable mental reactions;
- The effect of alcohol and other mind-altering substances coupled with a weakened state of mental health provokes nervous breakdowns, suicidal tendencies, and aggressive behavior;
- Death from heart, liver or kidney failure;
- Prolonged use of psychotropic drugs causes chronic diseases in these organs, and it is hard for them to withstand a new load in the form of alcohol and medication.
As an example, also consider the pros and cons of an addicted person’s forcible isolation: when they are kept at home by force, not allowed to take mind-altering drugs, or see their friends. According to family and close friends, this is how the addicted person should endure through withdrawal and beat the addiction.
This technique can only have an effect on those who once tried out a light drug, “just to be sociable,” when spending time with their friends, and who do not have any psychosocial problems.
But such cases are rather an exception to the rule because mentally healthy and self-sufficient people are not attracted to drugs.Involuntary isolation simply suppresses cravings for substances, pushing the addicted person to endure through the withdrawal symptoms. However, this strategy does not get rid of the underlying problems, i.e., psychosocial disorders. Therefore, the person concerned will continue to use as soon as the first opportunity is available.
Home isolation is not only ineffective but also unsafe. To get on top of the addiction problem, help needs to be sought not only from family members. A good option would be to closely communicate with a kindred soul, a former drug addict who has been down the road of treatment and rehabilitation. Such a person would know perfectly well what the addicted person is going through. Their advice and support are extremely important during a period of struggling to live clean. The new acquaintance should know absolutely everything about the addicted person’s life. There is no point in holding back on anything. After all, it is impossible to offer meaningful advice to a person who is blocking out the painful images of the past and bruising memories, which are the real causes of drug abuse. The new friend should not only be trusted, but their reliability must also be beyond any doubt. It is best to find a person like this among volunteers working in rehabilitation centers or anonymous drug treatment groups. It will be much easier for people like these to understand and reach the drug addict and really help out.
Is it possible to beat the addiction alone?
No! Well, unless you move to a desert island, which is basically a utopia. Try finding like-minded people! This is the first step to self-healing. Try to understand these two most important things: you are ALREADY a drug addict. Even if you “just smoke weed.” Even if you do it infrequently. Drugs are quite insidious.
There is no need to lie to those who love you. You’d better have a major argument, and endure the screaming and threats, but end up getting the help you need.
Only with the support of your near and dear ones, a better understanding of your family members, as well as advice and guidance from former addicts will you be able to defeat this deadly menace. The most important step to recovery, which must be taken by the addict themselves, is to become personally convinced that you are better off facing a new life without the burden of drugs, living a brighter and more interesting life, rather than existing for the sole purpose of getting your next fix.