The
following 10 points are ways that you can stop enabling your loved one battling
addiction, recover your sense of control, and hopefully stall the person you
love’s descent into disaster.
1. Stop providing money that allows your loved one to gamble, purchase drugs, alcohol, or participate in any other addictive behaviors. Think of giving money as basically giving them their drugs.
2. Do not pay bills, fines, rent, or food expenses. Saying No is your prerogative and without feeling the impact of being unable to cover these costs, no true hardship is experienced and consequences are avoided.
3. Avoid repaying loans your loved one has accrued or providing money to pay back ‘friends’ they have borrowed money from. Again, your loved one needs to experience the discomfort when those monies are requested from them repeatedly.
4. Do not lie, cover up or trivialize the facts about your loved one’s actions or behavior. That’s not to say that you need to shout out to the world the situation your loved one is in but if someone genuinely enquires give them the truth without sharing all the finer details.
5. Stop making excuses for your loved one or helping them by calling in sick or apologizing for them not attending events or appointments. When you make it easier for them to check out of their ‘normal’ life, you make it easier for them to fall into the shadows of addiction.
6. Do not do anything for your loved one that they should be able to do for themselves when sober or clean. By taking responsibility for the tasks they should otherwise be able to do you support them in taking advantage of you.
7. Avoid joining your loved one in their activities. This includes buying Lottery tickets if you have a partner who gambles or buying alcohol and drinking around an alcoholic. Let the person you love know by example that you do not support their choices.
8. Do not lend, gift or give your loved one any items that they can sell or pawn for money. Any item with even a minor value is easy cash for your loved one. They can be incredibly resourceful in trading goods, for money.
9. Set boundaries and stick to them. Do not make threats. Do not back down on your consequences. Doing so enables your loved one to simply push harder when they meet resistance, knowing you will likely back down again.
10. Be aware of codependent tendencies that cause you to want to rescue or save your loved one. Codependency is defined as taking an excessively passive, caretaking or controlling role in your relationship with your loved one. This is always detrimental to both their possible recovery and yours.
It takes time to become aware of the ways we enable our loved ones battling addiction but perhaps with the information in this list you can begin to remove the factors that are causing you, and your loved one more harm than good.
And remember, what we do when we enable comes from a place of love, and all of our intentions at the time are good. Please don’t punish yourself or feel guilty for having done anything that may have contributed to the ongoing course of your loved one’s addiction. But DO begin to remove the safety nets that prevent them from ever having to feel, recognize and face what they have become stuck in.
Only by doing so, can they have any chance of making the decision to free themselves.
1. Stop providing money that allows your loved one to gamble, purchase drugs, alcohol, or participate in any other addictive behaviors. Think of giving money as basically giving them their drugs.
2. Do not pay bills, fines, rent, or food expenses. Saying No is your prerogative and without feeling the impact of being unable to cover these costs, no true hardship is experienced and consequences are avoided.
3. Avoid repaying loans your loved one has accrued or providing money to pay back ‘friends’ they have borrowed money from. Again, your loved one needs to experience the discomfort when those monies are requested from them repeatedly.
4. Do not lie, cover up or trivialize the facts about your loved one’s actions or behavior. That’s not to say that you need to shout out to the world the situation your loved one is in but if someone genuinely enquires give them the truth without sharing all the finer details.
5. Stop making excuses for your loved one or helping them by calling in sick or apologizing for them not attending events or appointments. When you make it easier for them to check out of their ‘normal’ life, you make it easier for them to fall into the shadows of addiction.
6. Do not do anything for your loved one that they should be able to do for themselves when sober or clean. By taking responsibility for the tasks they should otherwise be able to do you support them in taking advantage of you.
7. Avoid joining your loved one in their activities. This includes buying Lottery tickets if you have a partner who gambles or buying alcohol and drinking around an alcoholic. Let the person you love know by example that you do not support their choices.
8. Do not lend, gift or give your loved one any items that they can sell or pawn for money. Any item with even a minor value is easy cash for your loved one. They can be incredibly resourceful in trading goods, for money.
9. Set boundaries and stick to them. Do not make threats. Do not back down on your consequences. Doing so enables your loved one to simply push harder when they meet resistance, knowing you will likely back down again.
10. Be aware of codependent tendencies that cause you to want to rescue or save your loved one. Codependency is defined as taking an excessively passive, caretaking or controlling role in your relationship with your loved one. This is always detrimental to both their possible recovery and yours.
It takes time to become aware of the ways we enable our loved ones battling addiction but perhaps with the information in this list you can begin to remove the factors that are causing you, and your loved one more harm than good.
And remember, what we do when we enable comes from a place of love, and all of our intentions at the time are good. Please don’t punish yourself or feel guilty for having done anything that may have contributed to the ongoing course of your loved one’s addiction. But DO begin to remove the safety nets that prevent them from ever having to feel, recognize and face what they have become stuck in.
Only by doing so, can they have any chance of making the decision to free themselves.
Source: Recovering You
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