Confronting friends struggling with drug addiction: The best ways of approach

Confronting friends struggling with drug addiction can be quite challenging. However, it is the right thing to do and very necessary more so in helping solve the problem

The best thing you can do to your friend who is struggling with an addiction is to give moral support and advice on the need to seeking professional treatment from experienced qualified addiction experts. This may seems easy by word of mouth but in reality there are very many obstacles that can make you keep distance even if there is the willingness to help. Fear is always the biggest obstacle and many at times confronting friends who are struggling with addiction becomes difficult thereby causing our loved ones to suffer because we are afraid of facing them with their addictive habits and lifestyle. The purpose of this article is to help you in understanding certain tips you can apply in confronting a friend with a drug addiction problem. Doctor Dalal Akoury MD and President of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center is a veteran addiction expert of several decades and she is sharing with us in this article that if you have a friend who may need drug intervention help, you must never choose to keep quite with that. Remember that substance abuse can be life threatening if not addressed in good time. Therefore we want to share with you some of the valuable tips that you can use to have a breakthrough in helping your friend consent to treatment without feeling embarrassed or intimidated. Before confronting friends struggling with drug addiction, doctor Akoury says that there are things you can do to prepare for your talk with the friend as well as specific practices to carry out when you talk to them. Remember that you have one very powerful tool (friendship) with you to break the silence, and because you are the friend the first step to recovery is getting your friend to the position of admitting that they have a problem, and getting them into a drug treatment program. This is always the greatest challenge because many addicts do not want to acknowledge that they have a problem which needs to be fixed. Denial is very rampant with most addicts and any breakthrough on this will be a great achievement. Here are some basic drug addiction intervention guidelines that have been proven to be effective with other patients in the past.

Confronting friends struggling with drug addiction: Intervention tips for before you talk with the friend

Like we have said before that, confronting a friend with a drug addiction problem is such an uphill task and so when considering this journey you must be very well prepared for it. For your objective not to fail it is important to be prepared for your encounter with the friend. Remember that you want to help and therefore you must be well informed of various consequences of addiction, your approach must not be intimidating or provocative, you are on a mission and you must show them that you are supportive and committed to helping. Achieving this will not be anyone’s cup of tea and be ready for rejection and formulate ways of handling that when it comes so that you are not demoralized in the process. These tips may not be conclusive, but they will help you make some progress in winning your friends mind into acknowledgement of the problem they are going through and enrolling into a treatment program.

• Because of the mission ahead of you, it is important that you learn more about drug abuse to have a better understanding of what your friend is dealing with. This way you will be more competent to respond to them if they ask you any challenging question.
• Before you get to your friend, it is important that you put down in writing a list of all the issues you believe have been a result of the person’s drug use. There are very may indicator you can think of including noting down systematically the times the person missed an appointment, relationship issues, unusual behavior you’ve noticed such as losing interest in hobbies, no longer paying attention to hygiene or dressing or antisocial or argumentative behavior. Take note that these are your observations and so you must be able to display to your friend both the present and the past. What they used to do then which they are not doing now or they are doing but in a funny way.
• The place of your first meeting is very important in this mission and therefore you must plan in advance to meet the person in a location that will be private, neutral and free from distractions. It should be a place where you believe you’ll have their attention. Always avoid places that will trigger them into craving for the drug.
• Another very fundamental factor of consideration is the meeting time. It is therefore necessary that your choice of time is accommodative more so to your friend. Remember that the time should also be when the person is not under the influence of drugs if at all possible. They might be more open to listening to you when they are sober than when under the influence of their drugs of choice.
• Being smart is an asset in this mission. In other words you should be armed with possible solutions to offer when that point comes up. For this reason you should be informed about steps the person can take to get help. We appreciate that this can be challenging but for you to succeed you may want to contact your local community health office for more information before embarking on the mission.

Confronting friends struggling with drug addiction: Confronting a friend about drug addiction

These intervention tips will help you be most effective when talking to the friend about your concerns.

• Let the friend know that your friendship is important and that they mean a lot to you, that your concern grows out of the fact you care about them.
• Be straightforward. Share what you’ve seen and why you think it’s a problem. Be rational rather than emotional. The more specific you can be the better.
• Be supportive rather than condemning or condescending.
• Point out, again, without condemnation, the differences you see in the person when they are sober and when they are under the influence.
• Don’t argue with the person. Just state your facts and perceptions and let them sink in. Repeat them if necessary, but not in an argumentative tone.
• Make a distinction between the person and their behavior. Say, “you’re a great person, but when you’re on drugs, you don’t seem to care about your life, your goals or your friends.”
• Encourage the person to seek help, and encourage them that effective treatment is readily available to those who want to overcome drug addiction.
• Share with them the pertinent information about where to seek this help.
• Assure them that you’ll be supportive of them if they seek help. Let them know you’ll stand beside them.

Finally use this drug intervention help to tell your friend what you see. He or she probably knows that their drug use is out of control, and hearing it from someone who shows care and concern as well as offers help. The encounter could be a turning point in their life. You may not be able to force someone into rehab, but helping them discover the truth about themselves may help them do it on their own by scheduling for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury for timely professional treatment.

Confronting friends struggling with drug addiction: The best ways of approach