Starring in a supporting role to any addiction is a tough job. Being the supporter of someone who is struggling with a heroin addiction can be an exhausting, heartbreaking, frustrating experience. There are many ways to support someone with a heroin addiction, some of them healthy and others not healthy. If you are supporting someone with a heroin addiction, you want to choose as many of the healthy behaviors as you can. Learning to be a non-enabling healthy person in the life of someone with heroin addiction requires boundaries, self-discipline and a radical acceptance that is sometimes hard to practice. No matter your love and devotion to the heroin addict in your life, the great lengths you go to in order to help them, there is always a chance it won’t work. Heroin addiction is one of the more severe addictions, causing a serious shift in the brain and damage to the body. When someone becomes completely chemically dependent upon heroin, it controls the way they think, the way they feel, and the decisions they make. Few things in life, including you, will be as necessary as heroin.
Accept your limitations
The first step in supporting a loved one with heroin addiction is recognizing that you are neither a saint nor a miracle worker. You have to be willing to accept the fact that you cannot fix or control your loved one by supporting them. Your good communication, healthy boundaries, and all of the efforts you make in your supporting role will not magically fix them out of addiction.
Understand heroin addiction
Heroin is a highly addictive drug which has a serious impact on the person using it. Understanding how heroin addiction affects the body, the mind, and the spirit is important for getting an idea of what your loved one is going through. Unless you have experienced heroin addiction yourself, you cannot fully understand the effect heroin has on someone’s life. It is helpful to seek out support meetings like Nar-Anon which is the Al-Anon of Narcotics Anonymous. There, you will be able to learn from other people who are supporting loved ones with addiction to narcotic drugs like heroin.
Learn your boundaries
When you discover that your loved one is fighting heroin addiction, it is helpful to start your own therapy process. Coping with a loved one’s heroin addiction can be exhausting. It is critical that you learn to take care of yourself in this process. Going to therapy will help you identify your behaviors in your supporting role, learn what your boundaries are and develop healthy tools for setting as well as enforcing them.
We see recovery from heroin happen every day. We know that the threat of heroin addiction today is strong. That is why we are committed to providing quality residential treatment and a spectrum of care to show clients how to fully enjoy living their lives clean and sober. For information call us today: 877.762.3707