When it relates to addiction, many people might be unfamiliar with the word “enable.” Which usually refers to “permit” or “allow” behavior.
While friends and family members of abusers typically have good intentions, their behaviors might unintentionally contribute to and sustain the addict’s harmful behavior. This article describes enabling addiction, explains how to identify it, and provides helpful advice on how to quit enabling a person with an addiction while continuing to provide support.
What is Enabling Behavior?
Enabling behavior is defined as any action that, consciously or subconsciously, encourages a person with an addiction to continue to consume substances. This could mean giving them money, hiding their activities, or refusing to set and enforce limits.
An enabler is often a friend or family member of an addict who accepts or tolerates their addictive actions. It could be by giving money or putting up with the addict’s unacceptable behavior.
Enabling vs. Helping
Understanding the difference between enabling and helping is necessary. Helping involves engaging in activities that help an addict’s recovery and urge them to accept responsibility for the actions they take. Enabling, on the other hand, encourages addiction by alleviating the negative consequences that the addict would otherwise face.
Signs of Enabling Behavior
If you are close to someone who is addicted, you may believe that you are supporting their addiction, but in reality, you may be feeding it. It’s critical to identify these enabling actions, put an end to them, and provide the addicted user with actual support that promotes their recovery.
- Avoiding the serious topic of addiction in front of addict user
- Providing financial support
- Ignoring dramatic behavior
- Taking their responsibilities and paying their bills
- Blaming other close people instead of addict users
- Prioritizing their needs over your own.
How to Stop Enabling an Addict?
Enabling, much like addiction itself, can quickly become a harmful lifestyle choice. You may find yourself becoming addicted to your loved one’s addiction, putting your own well-being and mental health at risk. You frequently feel angry and alone after enabling them. However, there are strategies for preventing and modifying this behavior.
Learn About Addiction
Learn about addiction to clarify misconceptions and have a deeper understanding of it. Acknowledge that only a drug addict person can choose to be fit and free of addiction.
Set Clear Boundaries
Developing clear boundaries can be one of the initial steps toward stopping enabling behavior. Explain these limits clearly and consistently, expressing what behaviors you will not allow and what action you will implement if those boundaries are crossed.
Take Professional Help
Think about consulting with an addiction therapist or counselor. They can give you guidance on how to quit being enabling and improve the way you support the addict’s rehabilitation.
Encourage Responsibility
Motivate the person with a substance use disorder to take responsibility for their actions. This means letting them deal with the natural impact of their actions. Instead of calling in sick for them, let them handle the consequences if, for example, they are late to work due to drug usage.
Promote Rehab Efforts
Encourage the addict to take on recovery and therapy. This might involve looking into available treatments, attending support groups, or providing consolation. Make sure that the things you do support their recovery rather than their dependency on drugs.
Educate Yourself
Learn about enabling habits and addiction. Knowing the mechanics of addiction may help you identify behaviors that promote recovery and create more effective action plans.
Join Healthy Support
Join support groups for people who have loved ones who are battling with addiction to get healthy support. Connecting with people going through comparable experiences might offer insight or get information from the House of Zen Recovery Rehab experts.
Stop Making Excuses
Give up justifying the addict’s actions and decisions. You cannot solve their issues by protecting them from the consequences of their behavior. You’re not supposed to be their caregiver.
Encourage Treatment
Providing your loved one with Codependency treatment is the best move you can make. It’s crucial to ask, even if they are unprepared to admit they have an issue. If they decline to help hands, firmly maintain your limits.
What Happens When You Stop Enabling?
It might be a challenging and traumatic process to cease enabling, but the addict needs to heal. Addicts frequently experience resistance or unpleasant reactions at first, but this is a critical step in realizing they need to change.
Positive Outcomes
One can get several benefits by ceasing to enable:
- Better Motivation for Recovery: Addicts could be more motivated to get treatment and modify their behavior if they don’t have a shield of enabling behaviors.
- Healthy Relationships: Honest, lasting relationships can result from setting clear limits.
- Personal Development: Both the enabler and the addict may experience interpersonal growth and development.
Challenges and Resistance
When you stop enabling, it’s necessary to be ready for resistance and maybe violence. Reactions from the addict might include lying, rage, or denial. To help you negotiate these difficulties, maintain your limits firmly and ask experts or support groups for help.
Addiction Impacts the Whole Family, Not Just the Addict
Addiction has a significant impact on the whole family. It is not only harmful to an addict. Family members who put too much effort into caring for the addict may face hatred and disrespect. Fear, worry, and irritation are common emotions in relationships. Families must get treatment when negative relationships are occurring. Often, setting limits and restoring balance requires expert guidance.
Conclusion
Enabling drug addicts who are addicted to substance use to continue their addiction is a prevalent and dangerous behavior. You might help an addict in their recovery more effectively if you recognize the warning signs of enabling, establish clear limits, and promote responsibility. Giving up enabling is a complex but necessary first step in promoting a more honest and healthy relationship and helping the addict on their road to recovery.
