As parents, seeing your children live a contented and glorified life is your greatest dream. You would want the best of everything in this world for them and would not hesitate to make sacrifices for it. However, witnessing your aspirations shatter and seeing your child suffer from addiction instead is like an unceasing nightmare. Teenagers usually do not realize that they are stepping into a dangerous game while quenching their thirst for exciting things. They have not fully developed critical or rational thinking skills and are likely to get sucked in this malice. No matter how hard it is to accept the situation, you would have to act fast to rectify it as there is no time to waste. Though hard to get through, thankfully, drug addiction is not a dead end, and there are many things you can do to help your child recover. Chemicals present in drugs and alcohol act directly on the mind, so an addicted person cannot escape the addiction on their own. When one becomes addicted to these drugs, he or she cannot imagine life without them. It becomes crucial to enroll your child in a Drug Rehab to help them escape from the dark hole. If you have found yourself in a similar situation, here are some ways you can accomplish it.
- Find the Right Rehabilitation Center:
Acquiring the services of a suitable rehabilitation facility can be a life-saver for your child. There are different strategies and programs for the treatment of addiction, e.g., outpatient and residential programs. The medical specialists at the Drug Rehab in Leicester would tailor the treatment plan according to the type of drug addiction, the history and severity of the case, and the co-occurring illnesses.. It is, therefore, necessary that you make the right choice. To do this, you need to be aware of the substance of addiction and treatment options. Educate yourself with all the rehab information from reliable sources so that you may understand what treatment would best suit your child and choose the rehab facility accordingly. It will also enable you to communicate with the doctors effectively and monitor the progress of the treatment.
- Don’t Let Your Emotional Attachment Encourage Addiction:
Seeing your child helpless in the face of circumstances and going through the pain of withdrawal can be stressful. You would want to ease their pain immediately at any cost. But be careful, as your attempt to ease the pain immediately might be harmful in the long run. Set aside your emotional attachment and think logically as your behavior might be encouraging the addiction. For example, consistent financial support might not be in the best interest of your child as you are unknowingly empowering them to buy drugs. Even costly gifts can backfire.
Moreover, making excuses to justify your child’s habits and showing unnecessary leniency may cause them to slip away again from your grasp. So, ensure that whatever you do is rational and not some hasty step. It may not be pleasant at the moment but necessary to permanently rend the shackles of addiction.
- Establish Effective Communication With Your Child:
Desperate times require desperate steps that your child might not feel pleasant about at the moment. It can make your relationship strained. To avoid such trust issues, have effective two-way communication and remove any misunderstandings that may have sprouted up. Assertive communication is key to strengthening the relationship. Make your child feel like they can rely on you in any situation and may share everything without giving it a second thought. Listen to them openly without being judgemental so that your child feels confident about confiding in you. Strong communication will make matters clearer, enabling you to decide the effective strategy. A feeling of satisfaction in your child that you are with them in this fight can move mountains for them.
- Seek Help from the Peer Support Groups:
Support groups can prove to be very beneficial in untieing the mental knots of your child. It is a non-clinical and non-professional approach for a sustainable recovery process. Interacting with people who have gone through or are still going through similar experiences will make your child more hopeful about the situation. Their stories and personal experiences will help to comprehend these unusual circumstances. It would also strengthen your child’s motivation whenever it is on the verge of breaking down. Although peer support groups are not a replacement for rehab, they will provide considerable support to back up the treatment process.
- Set Well-Defined Guidelines and Boundaries:
Unnecessary freedom can lead to relapse again and again. Set some non-negotiable boundaries that you believe you can uphold. For example, refrain your child from going to gatherings that may encourage relapse and setting up an early curfew time. While you should make hard decisions to make your child follow guidelines and boundaries, do not tighten your hold beyond an extent that may cause suffocation. You should know when to let things go and when to hold them accountable. Excessive inclination towards a single side can cripple your child, either leaving them entirely on their own or not letting them struggle themselves.
- Schedule Counseling Sessions With a Psychologist:
Mental issues are as important as physical ones and can be more devastating in some cases. It is impossible to treat addiction by throwing mental health problems behind as they often accompany the recovery process. They should be treated alongside drug addiction as they can pull your child back into being an addict. Take your child to a psychologist for counseling sessions to deal with this dual diagnosis. The experts will carry out suitable therapies to cope with depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc. It may be cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, or psychotherapy that would help your child overcome their internal battles.
Conclusion:
Parenting an addict and trying day and night to get everyone out of this mess can be physically and mentally draining. While the news of your child being an addict may stun you, there is no time for blaming and shaming them. In this delicate condition, your voice would engrave in their subconscious. Too much criticism would make them believe they are not good enough, further intensifying the problem. Since you are the closest relation of your child, the situation is in your hands to take control over. You may focus on what circumstances led to this situation and avoid them in the future. So, overcome your state of shock since someone has to be sober to determine the next steps. With proper planning, some professional help, and strong determination, you can once again normalize your child’s life.
