Loved ones of Addicted Individuals

Living with an addict can be so difficult, so painful, so debilitating, and so hopeless that life may feel like it is impossible to live. Loving an addict is sometimes torturous. However, it does not have to mean a loss of control of one’s own emotional wellbeing. We are in control of how we think and feel. We decide how to interpret the world around us and can therefore decide how to feel about things. It is very hard to change what we think but it is possible and if we can change what we think, we can change how we feel. However, the one thing you must learn as the loved one of an addict is, you cannot change an addict. Nothing you do or say or think or feel will ever change the addiction. This is precisely what we will assist those who love someone with an addiction to learn and live. This is not about self-help groups such as Alanon or Naranon. This is about learning how to change yourself in order to keep your sanity and live your authentic life.

Families with Addictions

by Lori O’Leary

This is for the loved ones of those with addiction
It’s a way to come back from this evil affliction
Never the sun rises without nightmares of fiction
In which the worst that can happen is your nightmare’s depiction

The sun never sets if you’ve not felt that same fear
That haunts you because your life’s so unclear
When your loved one seeks help and your life shifts a gear
Don’t fool yourself; troubles won’t disappear

The addiction’s a problem, but sobriety’s no cure
The true issues are beneath, unknown and obscure
Whether a parent, a sibling, a child or paramour
The problem runs deep through everyone’s core

It can be whiskey or wine or chocolate ice cream
Internet, gaming, or sex that’s obscene
Heroin, starving, and nicotine
All have their roots in low self-esteem

Everyone’s the victim and we all play that game
Addicted folks families are partly to blame
We all act a role; we can each stake a claim
The developing addiction takes your family’s name

The branches extend a contributing part
It’s from mom and from dad and from the addicted one’s heart
It’s important to ask yourself at recovery’s start
What’s in me that has torn this family apart

The dynamics are imoerative to understand
How we each try controlling the addiction at hand
We may not be the one with the addiction demand
Perhaps the enabling is how the fires are fanned

So therapy’s important for each that’s involved
To fix personal traits that helped addiction evolve
Just because you aren’t addicted you aren’t absolved
Of this family disorder that’s so rarely solved

Codependency, control, and passive aggression
All have to be things within your confession
No matter their behaviors, they’re your obsession
You’ll begin healing in your first therapy session

We Accept Insurance:

We work to make payment as hassle free as possible for our clients. We are partnered with many of the insurance providers and offer flexible spending options for out of network clients.