5 Tips to Help You Cope With Your Adult Child’s Addiction

addiction

Watching your loved one go through an alcohol or drug addiction is an extremely upsetting and scary situation. This is especially true if this loved one is your child, even if they are an adult. However, there are some healthy ways that you can cope with this experience while also showing your child the tools that they need to get help at the same time. Here are 5 tips to help you cope with your adult child’s addiction. 

  1. Do Your Homework on Addiction 

You cannot really help someone with addiction until you know everything about what their addiction and treatment entail. This includes knowing all of the possible withdrawal symptoms during an alcohol or drug detox, signs of an overdose, and all of the treatment options available. You might also want to do your research on some other factors that may contribute to your child’s addiction such as living environment or mental conditions. If any addiction contributors are present, then these will need to be treated along with substance abuse in order to truly help a recovering addict seek treatment. 

  1. Have a Respectful Conversation With Your Child 

The next step is to start an open and respectful conversation with your adult child about their addiction. It is important to create an environment that is trusting and non-judgemental. This way your child will feel more comfortable with being honest and expressing their feelings. “When this kind of environment is established you can encourage treatment options such as drug rehab in an organic way that does not seem forceful.”, says Mat Gorman, CEO at Nova Recovery Center. It will likely better allow you to express your emotions and thoughts on the situation as well. 

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  1. Remind Them You Love Them 

It is extremely important that you remind your adult child who is battling with addiction that you love them before, during, and after this conversation about their situation. Expressing how much you care about your child’s happiness and well being will help to show them that they do have a support system that is willing to help them through addiction treatment once they decide to follow through with it. It might even be the push that they need to start their journey towards sober living. It is also possible that this will encourage your child to reach out to other close friends and family as well. 

  1. Remember That it is Not Your Fault 

Throughout this entire situation, it is crucial to remember that your child’s addiction problem is not your fault. Beating yourself up about a situation that is completely out of your control will only make you feel worse and it won’t make this upsetting and frightening circumstance go away. You cannot effectively help others until you also help yourself, and you can do this by recognizing that your child’s addiction doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with you or your parenting. Being free of this mindset will better allow you to focus on helping your child seek addiction treatment. 

  1. Provide Your Child With the Tools They Need to Get Help

The final way to cope with your adult child’s addiction is by offering them help with receiving the addiction treatment that they need. This could include offering your emotional support, physical help with finding a rehab program, and helping out after they are finished with their rehab program in any way. Helping your child on their path towards sober living is possibly the best thing that you can do for your child who is going through addiction. However, you should never be pushy or forceful when it comes to your child’s addiction treatment, because in order to really get better addicts to need to be completely willing to go through treatment. 

Discovering that your child is going through an alcohol or drug addiction can be a very emotional and scary experience, even if they are an adult. However, there are some ways that you can healthily cope with this kind of situation. The first is to do your homework on addiction and any other relevant topics to ensure that you approach the situation with correct information and a good idea of how your child can receive help. The next tip is to have an open and non-judgmental conversation with your child about their addiction. In this conversation, you should establish a trusting environment that allows both of you to express your thoughts and emotions honestly. The next tip for coping with your child’s addiction is to remind them that you love and care for them, but you should also remember that this situation isn’t your fault. This will make everyone feel better and allow you to help your child as best as you can. The final way that you can cope is to help your child with seeking addiction treatment. However, you should remember that in order to have a successful addiction recovery, the addict needs to want to go through treatment. Therefore, these conversations with your child about addiction treatment should never be pushy or forceful.

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5 Tips to Help You Cope With Your Adult Child’s Addiction
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