Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: Meet Candace Plattor Treatment Talk

Research on the causes and triggers of the condition is lacking, but factors such as trauma and genetics likely play a role. Research also shows a connection between the euphoria of being in love and the feelings of pleasure a person with substance use disorder might have. In rare cases, the consequences of love addiction loving an addict may even be as severe as homicide or suicide. Other consequences may include the onset of severe emotional pain following a breakup. Although the causes may vary, a commonality of love addiction may be a false notion that your romantic partner will save you. This can be a lot of pressure to put on another person.

You also have to make sure that you remove your own sense of fear about creating consequences for the addict.
Navigating a relationship with a drug addict is a challenging and emotional experience that can test the very core of a person’s being.
A person who has an addiction may exhibit physical, behavioral, or psychological warning signs.
Also, an Internet search for “love addiction support groups near me” may give you additional options for support.
No one intends to become addicted to alcohol or drugs before they get their first taste.

How to Let Go Of An Addict You Love

If family members try to “help” by covering up for their drinking and making excuses for them, they are playing right into their loved one’s denial game. Dealing with the problem openly and honestly is the best approach. Accepting unacceptable behavior usually begins with some small incident that you brush off with, “They just had too much to drink.” But the next time, the behavior may get a little worse and then even worse. You might slowly begin to accept more and more unacceptable behavior. Before you realize it, you can find yourself in a full-blown abusive relationship.

What Is Love Addiction?

Do you move from relationship to relationship, not out of fear of being alone, but from an overwhelming or insatiable desire to feel loved? DeMaria says that may point to an unhealthy preoccupation. “Love addiction” isn’t a formal diagnosis — rather, the term describes people who constantly seek out the exciting feelings of new love. However, experts think calling this an “addiction” is problematic. Enabling an addict is never a loving act and it keeps the addiction going. So – reach out for some help for YOURSELF first, so you can learn the difference between helping and enabling, and stop being addicted to the addict’s addiction.

I am in my late forties now and seen a lot of people around me take hard drugs all whilst I have been working hard to become and remain abstinent from alcohol.
Eventually, I learned that I could cope even when the pain felt insurmountable.

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If someone you love doesn’t want to go to rehab, getting professional support, like a health care provider or mental health professional, is helpful. Like most people, you probably feel the need to help your loved one with addiction. You might fear that their predicament could worsen if you don’t help. However, “helping” people with addiction by giving them money or letting them stay in your home can actually be a form of enabling. Once you end the enabling and learn how to say no, you can truly begin to help your loved one.

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Ending Codependency with Someone Who is Addicted

All About ‘Love Addiction’: Signs, Causes, and Treatment

It means refusing to adapt or enable them and setting healthy boundaries around yourself that you refuse to cross.
That said, Saltz notes they might commonly use therapy approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT).
My goal is to not enable her and yet be there when she actually needs me.
Ambiguous loss is a term that has been used to describe the experience of losing someone in an incomplete, not-quite-final manner (Boss, 2010).
So often when you’re loving someone with an addiction, you may feel as if you have the ability to change them, or if you just keep working at it hard enough they’ll love you enough to quit using drugs.
Then the guilt floods in because we feel we abandoned them in their worst time and everyone else leaves to ill be the one that stays, show them what real love is. guilt is a very powerful feeling.