Your loved one suffers from addiction. You care about them very much, but their actions are causing you pain, frustration, and anxiety. Because you love them, it’s painful to watch them struggle. You want to help but your efforts have been unsuccessful, and that is very scary.

You Want to Help Your Loved One Overcome Addiction

Over time, the stress of loving someone with an addiction has taken a toll on your mental health and possibly your physical health as well. Perhaps, it feels like you’ve lost yourself trying to “save” them. You want to get help and support, but you’ve spent so much time and energy caring for your loved one and you’re not sure if you have any left to pour back into yourself.

Loving someone with an addiction is hard. It’s a constant struggle. Some days are great, and some days are horrible. You’re constantly worried about their health and safety. Maybe, you’ve bargained with them to stop using, or maybe you’ve threatened them, but nothing has worked. You’re at a loss. Or, perhaps, your loved one is in recovery, and it’s still hard for you to relax. Now, your worry shifts to the need for sobriety to be maintained or increased alertness to looking for potential indicators of relapse. While you’re proud of their progress, they’ve broken your trust over and over again, so you’re left feeling cautiously optimistic.

The Impact of Addiction

Even if your loved one is no longer active in your life, the impact of their past actions can follow you and cause you to struggle for years to come. Perhaps, you are the child of an addict, or you loved someone who lost their life due to addiction and is no longer with you. Or maybe, you’ve had to put boundaries in place that resulted in no longer being a part of your life. Addiction never just affects the individual suffering, loved ones are impacted and suffer as well. The toll addiction takes is long-lasting and hard to overcome without support.

Family members and loved ones of addicts face a wide variety of mental health concerns. These include:

• Anxiety

• Depression

• Trauma

• Anger

• Grief and loss

• Dissociation

• Lowered self-esteem

• Relationship concerns

• Mental confusion: finding it difficult to be able to tell what is true or know how to respond in various stressful situations

• Mistrust: a desire to trust yourself and others but finding it difficult to do so

• Detachment: feeling disconnected from some of the aspects of your personality that you once loved about yourself and not knowing how to get it back

Loving an Addict is Painful

Loving someone with an addiction and the subsequent pain and stress it causes may affect many areas of your life making it hard for you to do the things you need or want to do. Loving an addict may take a toll on your health, ability to function and complete day-to-day tasks. It can also negatively impact your relationships with other people you love including your kids, your spouse, your other family members, and your friends.

These mental health issues can be long-lasting if they are left unaddressed and untreated. A skilled therapist who understands addiction can support you while you work through its impact. You do not have to suffer in silence. It’s okay to use some of your mental and physical energy to care for your wellbeing. Actually, taking care of yourself is an essential component of caring for an addict.

It can be difficult to acknowledge that you are powerless over your loved one’s addiction. Your well-intentioned begging, pleading, bargaining, and threats probably haven’t worked or at least didn’t cause lasting change. And it can’t and shouldn’t. That would be much too heavy of a burden for anyone to carry; the feeling that you are responsible for someone’s disease of addiction. Your responsibility can shift now, it can shift to being kind to yourself and caring for your needs. It’s your turn to get to experience support. Counseling for family members and loved ones of addicts can help you work through the understandable struggles you’ve experienced.

Our Approach to Support Families of Addicts in Dallas, TX

We assist you as you care for your mental health and support you while you navigate setting boundaries with your loved one. We understand your hardships and your love for your family members. We know they are facing their own struggles and are suffering due to their addiction. But, in counseling your needs are our priority.

In counseling, we use the stages of change model to help you understand the cycle of addiction and recovery. We also talk about setting boundaries with your loved one to help protect yourself and your mental health. This is often referred to as detachment. Detachment refers to separating yourself from your family member’s addictive behavior. For some, this may feel very extreme and harsh, but it doesn’t have to be. Detachment simply means that you let go of your obsession to end their addiction. This protects you and helps you look at the situation in a more realistic way. You can still love them, but you don’t have to let their addiction hold so much power over your thoughts and your life.

Ultimately, our goal is to help you create a sense of stability and peace in your life. Our therapists will help you establish the confidence to make difficult choices in chaotic situations and offer you a space to navigate the confiding maze of your daily life as a family member of an addict. Our counseling office offers you a place to be cared for and a confident non-judgemental, and empathetic place to talk about your most challenging relationship.

Receive Support for Families of Addicts in Dallas, TX

Your life is complicated and so is your relationship with your loved one. Our therapists seek to offer you comfort as you begin your healing journey. Follow these steps to begin counseling in Dallas, TX, or online therapy in Texas:

1. Contact White Rock Therapy

2. Schedule an appointment with a caring therapist

3. Start receiving the support you deserve

Other Services Offered at White Rock Therapy

Support for families of addicts isn’t the only service we offer from our Dallas, TX-based therapy practice. Other services offered at White Rock Therapy include therapy for dissociation, EMDR therapy, trauma therapy and PTSD treatment, group therapy, anxiety therapy, and online therapy. We also offer intensives, therapy for dissociation, Christian counseling, grief counseling, and therapy for athletes. We also offer clinical supervision and clinical consultations for therapists. Support is readily available in Dallas, TX, Frisco, TX, virtually anywhere in Texas and virtually anywhere in New Jersey. For any additional questions, please visit our FAQ.