When someone has a habit, it can impact every aspect of their lives as well as the lives of their beloved ones. Knowing someone with an addiction is not unusual, but knowing the best way to help an adored one with an addiction can be confusing and even scary. You will inevitably be concerned about your adored one, and it can be confusing to know what to do and what not to do, but it’s crucial to reflect that recovery is a resolution.
Once you’ve witnessed the signs of addiction in your adored one — like an Alcohol Addiction or an Opioid Addiction, for example — you’ll require to know how to talk to and treat them positively and helpfully. There are several ways to do this, some easy to practice and others requiring a little more effort and understanding.
Remember, catalysts are the first step in developing a practice. Identifying the triggers behind their habitual behaviors is the first step in moving past them. Please spend a few days tracking their approach to see whether it tracks any habits.
Note things like:
● Where does the expected behavior happen?
● What duration of the day?
● How do they feel when it happens?
● Are others involved?
● Does it happen right after something else?
After a few days of tracking their behavior, they realize they tend to stay up later if they start watching TV or chatting with friends after dinner. Let’s say they want to stop staying up past midnight. But then go to bed earlier if they read or take a walk.
On weeknights, they switch off their phones and quit watching TV by 9:00 p.m. It becomes more difficult to maintain the habit of staying up late when the trigger, such as watching TV or talking to friends, is removed.
Why do they want to break or change a particular habit? Research from 2012 Trusted Source suggests it may be easier to change the behavior when the change one wants to make valuable or beneficial to them.
Please take a few minutes to consider why they want to break the habit and any benefits they see resulting from the change. Listing these reasons may help them think of a few that haven’t occurred to them yet.
Make them write out their justifications on paper and post them somewhere they’ll see them frequently, such as their refrigerator or bathroom mirror, to provide as additional motivation. The list can help keep the change you’re trying to make in your mind fresh. Your list serves as a reminder for you if you do manage to relapse into the behavior.
An individual is chosen to give our readers a reference to understand this topic better, TJ Woodward. He has spent over twenty years developing and refining a unique, integrative approach to treating addiction and addictive behaviors. He is the founding minister of the Agape Bay Area in Oakland.
He was ordained by Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith and Agape International in 2018. The Conscious Recovery Method, finally released in 2017, is the culmination of his years of study, personal experience, and work with coaching and ministerial clients.
Rooted in the understanding of underlying traumas that interfere with finding and cultivating our whole, perfect ‘essential self,’ Conscious Recovery represents an integration of critical elements from singular approaches, presenting a gentle yet powerful approach to understanding and connecting with the whole self, and learning to let go of the wounds and other factors that get in the way of living whole, authentic lives.
