If a loved one is or has gone through some sort of addiction you may recognize that it makes a large impact on the person suffering, but It also has a huge impact of friends and family of the one suffering from addiction. When a person suffers from some sort of addiction, whether it be alcohol or excessive spending their feelings are usually not suppressed which has the biggest impact on those closest to them, or those whom they live with. Addiction is not an easy issue to deal with if you are on the receiving end or if someone you love is suffering from it. Usually, the one suffering from addiction is in constant denial of their addiction which makes it so much more difficult to treat. Many relationships are lost through addiction. You can lose contact with friends and family and you may lose interest in activities in which your loved ones and you used to bond through. Friends and family encounter emotional turmoil and depression because they feel as if it’s impossible to help someone past their addiction. They turn the blame on themselves which is detrimental; it destroys their self-love, self-worth, and motivation to help.
When someone is diagnosed with an addiction, someone in the family typically has to step in as the caregiver. They may have to quit their job to devote their care to a suffering addict. This may begin to take a toll on that person’s physical and mental health promoting anxiety and deep depression. It’s so much of a burden to take care of their loved one that they deteriorate and forget to take care of themselves.
When you are suffering from addiction you may begin to isolate yourself from your family and friends to participate in your substance or activity abuse. Sometimes the isolation is in an attempt to protect his family members from the addict.
Addiction can lead to financial trouble. Purchasing substances is a huge drain of money. The addict may use their disposable income until there is none left. When this happens, a number of different things may happen. The person may start to use money that is not meant to spent leisurely like money meant to pay bills or a mortgage. A family may go broke just because a family member is suffering from an addiction of some sort.
Something that typically stems from addiction is violence and agression. Suffering from addiction often changes the way the brain functions which promotes this destructive behavior. Abuse is the worst thing to happen to a family when a loved one is suffering. Abuse may be sexual, verbal, emotional, or even physical. The worst part is this abuse may be directed at a spouse or even a child. This is a major public health concern. IPV (Intimate Partner Violence) and child abuse are known to be linked to some sort of substance abuse in most cases.
Substance abuse usually leads to different diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and/or AIDS which affects the caregiver in the family. From all of the ways that addiction affects friends an family above, the worst outcome is divorce or permanent separation from family.
Hello Johnny, I enjoyed your article. The article perfectly summarized the affects of drugs to not only the individual undergoing substance abuse, but the caregivers/family associated with the individual. Your ability to capture this topic in a different perspective has helped me with my research and blog post about the destructive E-cigarettes, juuls. On my blog, I advocate for the prevention of juuls through communication and education. Your well examined description of drugs helped me open my eyes to the multiple reasons why drugs are harmful. You can check out my blog to gain more insight to this multi dimensional issue https://wordpress.com/view/freshpod.home.blog
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This post did a very good job of explaining the effects of drug users on families and friends. I really liked the part where you discussed how someone has to step up and care for the abuser by providing them help in whichever means available and most effective. I think this was very well written but was missing a few aspects and parts such as the total effect on society, in my blog I explained this issue both in a multimedia presentation and several times on my blog. If you wish to read it you can using the link https://stopopioidabuse219602461.wordpress.com/
I loved reading how addiction affects oneself and others. I think you did a pretty good job explaining that. I would love to read more about the possible solutions to help with addiction. How is our community dealing with our addiction issue?
Hi Johnny, I liked your post. I think it is very brave of you to write about addiction. lots of families struggle with helping someone who is addicted. I liked how you added into your essay that someone in the family has to step up and be a caregiver to the addicted person. I liked how you added that because it shows that addictions don’t just hurt you, they hurt everyone around you. https://www.bhpalmbeach.com/recovery-articles/impact-substance-abuse-and-addiction-families/ here is a website link to an article about the struggles within the family who is dealing with addiction.