Author: contributor

When someone recovers from addiction and becomes sober, the journey doesn’t end there. They need to keep being intentional about their activities and habits so that they won’t go back to their addiction. Someone can be sober and later relapse due to many reasons.

If your loved one just recovered from addiction, this is the best time to keep an eye on them so that they don’t relapse. If you suspect that they might be struggling to return to their addiction lifestyle, here are some signs to help you find out.  

They skip counseling sessions

One of the easiest ways to know if your loved one is struggling with relapse is when they don’t attend counseling sessions. They might keep giving different reasons why they were unable to meet up, but if you check closely, you will discover that those reasons are mere excuses.

You can also find out from the counselor or therapist to know how frequent they’ve been with their aftercare counseling sessions.

They isolate themselves

While it is quite normal for individuals who recover from addiction to isolate themselves, it could also be a sign of relapse. It is important to note that addiction thrives in isolation.

Therefore, even if you want to give your loved one their desired privacy, you need to find out what they are up to. When you suspect that they may be back to their addiction, you need to get help for them.

They talk regularly about the “good old days”

You need to also listen to the words that your loved ones will say because there might be some hidden messages there. If they love talking about how their addiction lifestyle was one of the best days of their lives, then it could suggest that they might return to it.

They start meeting with old friends with questionable habits

Another way to know that a relapse is lurking in the shadows is when they start reconnecting with some of their friends who are addicted. When you discover this, you can advise them to connect with sober people who will encourage positive habits.

Drug addiction is a very harmful illness with long-lasting effects. Its negative effects could spread beyond one person to a family, and even to other generations. Therefore, you must do all in your capacity to prevent the onset of drug addiction in your family.

But to effectively do this, you need to know key ways to prevent addiction. Thus, this article will guide you by highlighting some ways by which you can avert drug addiction in your family.

Some of these include;

• Maintain a Healthy Relationship

Major causes of drug addiction are childhood trauma, or the inability to cope effectively with stress. One way to address this is through healthy family bonding. Maintaining a healthy bond within the family will help ensure that no one falls into depression or anxiety, which could lead them to drugs.

Having a healthy relationship also allows people to open up when there is something wrong with them. This way it is easier to address any emotional or psychological issue that could lead to drug addiction.

• Addiction Awareness

You can have occasional awareness talks about the ills of drug addiction as a family. Do not avoid this sensitive matter with the family. If you do not talk about it, someone out there will talk about it and can tell them the wrong thing.

So, you can honest conversations about the causes and effects of drug addiction. This can help deter any of your family from drug addiction.

• Monitoring

Drug addiction can occur due to various social influences, like peer pressure, etc. effective monitoring would help you identify the type of friends your children have. If they are people who are drug addicts, you would notice this quickly and can address it immediately.

In summary, these are some ways to prevent drug addiction in your family. First, know what drug addiction entails. Know its symptoms and take steps to tackle its occurrence in your family. 

Drug addiction is a horrible illness that the brain cells of a person. It virtually affects the entire life of a person and can even spread to the lives of those around them. Therefore, it is vital that you avert this illness in your family.

One way to prevent drug addiction is by knowing the signs that indicate addiction. If you do not know that addiction is ongoing in your family, you cannot do anything to stop it. Therefore, it Is important that you know how to spot drug addiction in a family member.

These signs show that your family member might be addicted to drugs.

• Withdrawal

Let us begin first with the social signs of addiction. If you begin to notice sudden signs of withdrawal in a family member, it could be due to addiction. Drug addiction affects the brain of a person such that they begin to withdrawal from everything that isn’t drugs, including their family.

• Loss of Interest

If a family member begins to express irritated loss of interest in activities, it could be due to drug addiction. As stated earlier, drug addicts spend all their time thinking about when they can get another dose of the drug. Thus, they are uninterested in other activities that doesn’t relate to drug consumption.

• Physical Signs

There are also physical signs that tell that a family member might be addicted. Signs like dilated eyes, smell of drugs, or lack of sleep. These are physical signs that could relate to drug addiction.

• Secrecy

If you notice that a family member begins to be uncharacteristically secretive about his/her whereabouts. And he/she begins to be absent at odd periods of the day. This could be due to drug addiction.

Especially if these absences become sudden and unexplainable.

• Loss of Memory

If your family member begins to have frequent loss of memory, paying less attention to details and having very low performance. It could mean drug addiction.

In summary, note that these signs could also be indicators for else which isn’t drug addiction. So, it is vital that you do not take them in isolation, but collectively to identify drug addiction in a family member.

Most people think that drug addiction is a personal battle that must be faced and conquered by the individual alone.  

However, accurate results from various studies have proved that addiction is more like a family disease than an individual disease. And the reason for this is because, provided the individual has a family, they would be affected in various ways unknown to them.  

Hence, addiction has the capacity to affect the loved ones of an individual, which also includes close friends.  

People who are addicted to drugs would most likely be terrible liars and it is no fault of theirs. Now, drug addiction comes with a stigma which the victims do not like to identify with. And this is because people do not understand how addiction works, that is why the stigma exists.  

Addiction breeds contempt in the family. A good number of the family members would be at loggerheads with the addicted family member.

Due to the fact that drug addiction can modify the way a person thinks and process emotions, the person would not likely be on the same terms with the family.

Within a short period, the addicted individual becomes distanced from the family. They no longer have things to do together in common because they are in two worlds apart.

At this point, none of the family members would be able to encourage the addicted member to seek help from a rehab.

If care is not taken, the addicted member might even affect some of the family members and they could start abusing drugs in no time.

For instance, if the addicted member is the first child of the family, he or she could directly or indirectly encourage the younger siblings to start abusing drugs which would eventually make them addicted.

It is important to seek help from a rehab when drug addiction exists in the family. And during treatment, there are times when the family would attend some of the counseling sessions to fully understand the condition of their loved one.  

A good number of people make the mistake of taking drugs indiscriminately. They do not involve their health provider, and eventually they develop complicated health conditions.

One of the reasons for this is, people already know the benefits of the drugs they want to take, so there is this willpower to make decisions for themselves by taking the drugs. And the sad part is, a good number of people do not stick to the normal prescription.

It is either they take more than expected, or they take below what is needed.  

In addition to this, one of the major reasons why people do not listen to their health provider is because they enjoy abusing the drug. Now, there are some drugs which give some exhilarating feeling, and when they are used in excess, the reward system of the brain is triggered.

These drugs have been notably identified and when people need these “feelings”, they go for the drugs not minding if it is safe or not.

Hence, this is why people get addicted to drugs. When you continue abusing drugs for a long period of time, addiction sets in fully and this becomes a risky stage.

One of the best ways to counter this is to reduce the popularity of over-the-counter drugs. Usually, the drugs that are abused are sold over-the-counter. So, people would rather go there and get drugs instead of going to the hospital to seek proper advice on the medications to use.

It is crucial to note that there are some drugs that destroy the liver and other important organs if they are not properly used. However, with your healthcare provider, this will be avoided because you will be given proper guidance on how to use drugs appropriately.

Conclusively, listening to your health provider means that you are ready to give your health top priority. With this, you are certain that you cannot be a victim of any form of addiction, particularly drug addiction.