You may come across a time when your loved one or friend has a substance abuse issue or addiction. You might start thinking this person in your life needs to go to rehab. If this has crossed your mind, there are some tips on how to get someone to go to rehab. Just remember, these tips aren’t concrete answers to having someone get the help they need. However, they are going to increase the chances that someone will accept they need help and start a treatment program.
If you need a rehab program, our ARIA FL team is here for you today.
Learn About Addiction
One of the best things you can if you want someone to go to rehab is to learn about addiction and rehab yourself first. It can be difficult to convince someone that they have an addiction if you don’t know a lot about it. It can also be tough to get someone to go to rehab if you don’t know a lot about how rehab works.
Some of the things that you may want to learn about addiction and rehab include:
- What an addiction is
- How addiction impacts friends and family members
- How addiction impacts the addict’s life
- What treatment options there are for different types of addiction
- How you can help when someone is in recovery
- What someone can expect when they go to rehab
- How you can get support if you have a loved one or friend who is addicted
If you learn these things, it will be much easier on you to have a conversation with your loved one or friend. It will also increase the chances that your friend or loved one will get the help they need, as well.
Be Empathetic and Continue Offering Resources to Help
If you are trying to get someone to go to rehab, it is critical that you are empathetic with them. It can be irritating when you are trying to help someone who doesn’t want to be helped at the time. However, think about how you react when someone is offering you advice or help that you don’t want or think you need. Probably similar to how your loved one is reacting or at least somewhat like that. So, give them time to process your feelings and thoughts, be empathetic with them and continue offering resources to help them with their addiction.
Don’t Plead With, Guilt Trip, or Shame Them
Addicts don’t do well with people pleading with, guilt tripping or shaming them. Again, try to think about how you feel when people guilt trip or shame you. It probably doesn’t feel very good. Now imagine if you had alcohol or drugs in your system that were affecting your mood, mental health and physical health – it’d probably feel even worse.
In addition, if you try to plead with, guilt trip or shame your loved one into going to rehab, they are more likely to push you away. Being empathetic, continuing to offer resources and giving them some time to get help are better routes to take.
Don’t Stop the Negative Consequences
If your loved one has an addiction to alcohol or drugs, one of the best things you can do for them is to let the consequences happen. If you try to protect your loved one from the negative consequences of their addiction, they aren’t going to see how badly the addiction is affecting their life. They will be less likely to fix the problem, as well.
When someone has an addiction, it is important that we let them take responsibility for their choices and their actions. If they can’t see or realize their bad behavior has bad consequences, how can they take that responsibility and promote positive change in their life.
Creating Boundaries
If you haven’t done so already, it is crucial that you create boundaries with your addicted loved one or friend. Since they have an addiction, they are likely going to step on and cross every boundary they can to continue getting or using drugs and/or alcohol. However, this doesn’t mean that you just allow it to happen. You continue to set stronger boundaries.
Follow Through with Your Own Self-Care
When dealing with someone who is addicted to alcohol or drugs, it is important that you don’t solely focus on them. If you do only focus on your addicted loved one or friend, you will likely start seeing the negative effects hitting your life, as well – in your relationships, at work, in your productivity levels, in your happiness levels, etc.
For this reason, it is important that you set up a self-care routine and follow through with it. You should do this even when not dealing with an addicted loved one, but especially so, when you are dealing with them.
Get an Intervention Scheduled and Do It
There are many friends or family members who do plan out an intervention, but then, they don’t go through with it. There are others who never decide to do an intervention for their addicted loved one or friend. As someone who wants their friend or loved one to go to rehab, it is important to hold at least one intervention or even more than one if it has been a bit and they still aren’t getting help.
Hiring Professional Help
If you have held an intervention and your loved one or friend still isn’t getting the help they need, it may be best to hire professional help. The professional interventionist may have more tips and resources to get your loved one or friend to go to rehab or to start their recovery in other ways. The interventionist may also have additional resources for you and other family members.
Get Someone the Help They Need Today
Now that you have many ways to help someone go to rehab, you can start using these tips to encourage your loved one to get help for their addiction. If you need more help or guidance or your loved one is ready to go to rehab, please contact us today, here at ARIA FL, so they can get the treatment they need or so you can get the help or guidance you need.