It may be an easy pass to joke about being a “scree-ager” or “addicted to pie,” but the reality is that the statistics on addiction are real, large, and saddening.

There are plenty of people loving an addict in their life, and maybe you’ve found yourself in that boat. Helping a friend or family member struggling with an addiction can be a difficult and complicated process.

However, there are some things you can do to help yourself help the addict in your life. With these three tips, you can alleviate some of the stress that comes with loving an addict.

Check the article for details

1. Research

The first key step in being there for the addict in your life is to familiarize yourself with their addiction. This step can be a little grueling, but it’s really important.

This is because you’ll be able to recognize certain behaviors that occur in a specific addiction. That way you can recognize certain behaviors and adequately react.

This will equip you to be able to take care of your loved one struggling with addiction using proper tactics and without possibly hurting or enabling them with your actions.

2. Be Honest

The next tip is to be honest with your loved one. They say that honesty is the best policy and it really applies to this kind of relationship.

This means, more often than not, that you need to confront your loved one about their addiction if they are unaware or if you haven’t done so yet. However, this step is pretty critical and can be a big moment in your relationship so make sure you are adequately prepared.

You can do this by speaking to a professional or a trusted individual beforehand and planning out what you want to say when you actually have the conversation.

3. Take Care of Yourself

Finally, you also need to guard your heart and your mental health throughout this process. Loving an addict takes a lot of time and energy and will involve a lot of ups and downs.

Life may often feel like it’s turning upside down, and you can read on here to understand how to find clarity. What matters is that you’re keeping up healthy habits whether it’s meditation or having your favorite dinner, to make sure that you are also staying in a good headspace when you’re helping.

You can’t pour from an empty cup and that completely applies here! So make sure your cup is always full when you’re working on caring for your loved one.

Loving an Addict Is a Journey

Loving an addict is a journey: you begin with addressing the issue and continue to fight for recovery side by side. You can’t exactly pinpoint a final destination, because every day sober is a day added to recovery.

But this is a journey for the long haul, and your love can carry you through it as long as you pair it with intentional work that comes with these three tips.

If you found this post helpful, check out some of our others and come back again soon for more content.