There is a moment in many different families lives where the question must be asked: should I be worried?
For every addiction and every individual, situations vary to the degree of severity. Make no mistake, any addiction is reason enough to worry but depending on how serious the situation, certain times it should be handled differently than others.
Regardless, most addictions have negative long term effects, but many can be curtailed and brittled down to an ambient level of problems.
For every addiction, there is a level of progression which is what I will be going over in detail. It must be remembered, however, that if an addiction is suspected, take action immediately to avoid any lasting damages. It’s always better to err on the side of caution.
Seclusion
Whoever in the targeted families is dealing with some kind of substance addiction issue, isolation and the seclusion from others should be a fairly easily observed symptom to start on. A very common symptom for nearly all addictions is the attribute of isolation.
Whenever addicts begin struggling through substance abuse issues, they tend to seclude themselves first from families then their friends. Many times this act is signaling the beginning of an addiction issue.
So while the families involved should worry, they should also be aware that this stage of addiction is largely plastic (moldable and able to be easily changed). This part of addiction can be dealt with treatment and can be controlled quite easily. The problem in this comes from families lack of responsibility in this phase. Many times an addiction will go untreated in which it will then fester and get progressively worse. Once this gets worse, fixing the damages caused by addiction will then become less likely to reverse, probably leaving behind more traces of its damages throughout the person’s life. Acting quickly is of vital importance when dealing with any kind of addiction issue.
To get further information to see if someone you love might be suffering from addiction issues, read through the following.
Disinterest
Another common sign that families should be aware of is the loved one’s disinterest in activities or hobbies they used to take a part of.
Sometimes this moment is described by many, as their disinterest in participating in certain family activities. A common beginning is in the avoidance of family meals, most notably dinner.
Family dinner talks have been described by several sociologists as an integral part of relationship building between most families. It has been connected to the happiest families and scored the highest on tests involving perceptions of relationship stabilities between many different families.
Disinterest can affect many different tastes and perceptions about things they usually once sought after. A commonly reported case is the individual suffering through addiction begins to lack interest in a common routine such as watching certain movies and television shows. The reason this has been reported so many times is because many times loved ones, either family or friends, tend to have times devoted to watching certain things they enjoyed together, but then begin to witness a separation between themselves and the addict.
Secretiveness
In the journey of the progression of addiction, one will eventually encounter the addicts self-denial. This usually doesn’t matter to the type of addiction involved, but hiding the effects and the habit is extremely common with nearly all types of addictions.
When an addiction reaches this level of severity, families involved should confront the addiction the afflicted is suffering from directly. By the very nature of someone acting secretive, means that finding out the problem will mostly be a more difficult task. Attention to detail is vital in understanding and knowing what to look for.
It should also be advised that when families believe that a loved one might be acting secretive around their family, they should never be judged. In addition, when confronting the individual, it’s also important to keep the climate relaxed and not come too aggressively.
To placate the situation should also be a priority when addressing an addiction. If need be, help can always be found to help stage an intervention if needed.
Never Home
Whether the individual suffering is living at home or with friends, it should be fairly obvious to those living there whether the individual in question is rarely home. In addition, if there seems to be a completely different group of friends involved with the life of the one suffering through addiction, that may also be an indicator of a problem growing in severity.
If addressing the friends or different groups in question to the addict, it must never be accusatory. Many times people that need help from an addiction, fail to receive treatment because of a family’s reaction to outside groups. Reports show the attitude taken on the outside groups are sometimes seen as an attack on the addict themselves.
These situations are fickle and fragile and must be dealt with gently.
Anger
Getting upset, irritated, or easily angered is a sign many families should make an immediate note of if ever witnessed. Addiction is a disease that many different people fail to understand is a totalitarian disease. A disease that is very difficult to fight against, which makes anger an easy to understand emotion in that battle.
Nobel Peace laureate Daniel Kahneman, author of the landmark book Thinking Fast and Slow, has a name for what happens when people such as addicts are having an internal battle and eventually a product of it is explosive rage and annoyance. He names it “ego depletion”, the act of the ego losing control due to the many factors going on around it.
A better way to understand ego depletion relative to addiction is to also understand the energy it takes in suffering through it.
When suffering from addiction, the addict understands that composure is part of keeping a problem secret. However, in the attempt at keeping the addiction secret, which addiction by its very nature is an overwhelming sensation to ingest something or participate in a certain activity, becomes exhausting after enough time.
With enough internal fighting and back and forth between the ego and the self, it will eventually tire the sufferer out in a short amount of time.
This is also one of the reasons that people on reality television shows react so extravagantly. Television producers understand the vague concept of ego depletion and purposefully use its concept for the episodes.
What we see on the air is actually after several days of filming. The show producers will record 24 hours a day, forcing the people being filmed to exhaust themselves in only trying to keep up appearances. The explosions in reaction we see on screen, are typically the moments the producers were working for.
In their act of trying to remain professional, the ego can only pay so much attention until an explosion is inevitable.
This clearly explains the aggravation of an addict, and also what we tend to see on certain reality shows.
Seek Help
As said earlier, any suspicions of addiction should always be dealt with immediately. Don’t let this happen to yourself or a loved one. It’s the families responsibility to help one another because often times, it’s only with one another that we can save ourselves.
A united family is the foundation for the beginning of any discussion that has to do with treatment and addiction. While it might not always be needed, it’s vitally important to keep in mind.
Contact us today for more information and how we can help.