Enabling Behaviors

As with most behaviors, families learn to enable addictions. Just about everything a family learns about addiction is taught to them by the addict. Because of this, every intervention is composed of 2 parts: the intervention with the family and the intervention with the substance abuser. The family needs to be met with first because we need to break them of their enabling habits. An addict or alcoholic can almost never get drunk or high without additional resources. Because of this, the loved one requires some form of enabling behavior from the family. Family First Intervention does not suggest that you proactively ruin your loved one’s life. Instead, we show you how to make your loved one become accountable for the addiction. The intervention helps the family stop the enabling behaviors so that the addict can start on the road to recovery.

There are 3 main types of enabling behaviors: passively providing comfort, actively taking away consequences, and encouragement.

Passively Providing Comfort

This consists of anything we do or do not do that makes a substance abuser more comfortable with the addiction, including negative behaviors that encourage the addictive lifestyle.

Denying, rationalizing, or minimizing
Not confronting the addict
Keeping the loved one’s problems a secret
Waiting
Tolerating increasingly worse behaviors
Not calling the police when a crime is committed against you
Allowing your loved one to stay in the home

Consequences of Enabling Addicts

Blaming ourselves or others for the loved one’s behavior
Bearing the negative consequences for the loved one
Providing rent, money, or food
Taking over financial responsibilities
Allowing the loved one to use your car

Encouragement of Addictive Behaviors and Substance Abuse

This entails anything we do that directly increases the chances of our loved one continuing the behaviors of substance abuse.

Drinking or using with the substance abuser
Giving money to support the habit
Putting yourself in jeopardy by allowing drug activities in the home
Driving the substance abuser to the bar or to drug hangouts
Getting the loved one’s prescriptions or paying for them
Buying drugs or liquor for the substance abuser

Why Families Enable Addicts

Families enable for the same reason their loved one uses: enabling is a comfortable alternative to avoid facing the problem head on. The families we help are shocked to discover that their enabling is similar to their loved one’s addiction. Families enable their loved ones from feeling the consequences of their emotions, environment, health, finances and spirituality. Until the addict or alcoholic feels significant consequences in these areas they are more likely to choose abusing drugs or alcohol over seeking sobriety.

Enabling prevents an alcoholic from hitting bottom and getting the help needed. Until your loved one becomes uncomfortable with the addiction and the enabling behaviors stop, he or she will not get the help so desperately needed. The importance of a reliable support system, however, can not be overstated.

This free eBook can guide families as they support a loved one in breaking free from addiction.

Download your copy of the free eBook now!

Mike Loverde

With firsthand experience with addiction, Mike Loverde is now a Certified Intervention Professional (CIP), as accredited by the Association of Intervention Specialists and the Pennsylvania Certification Board. He founded Family First Intervention in 2008 and has since helped hundreds of families find intervention and addiction rehabilitation solutions.

Scroll below to see the latest blog articles from the desk of Mike Loverde. He shares his years of expertise on various addition, mental health and intervention topics. If you have any questions about any of the material or want to inquire about our intervention services, don’t hesitate to contact us anytime.

Why Choose

Family First Intervention?

Addicts and alcoholics have taught their families everything they know about their addiction and how to handle it. We understand that a single person addicted to drugs or alcohol is easier to help than 5 or more family members who are addicted to their loved one through codependency. We understand the dynamics of a complex family system that has been hijacked by their loved one through emotional manipulation.

Families tend to focus their efforts on talking their loved ones into treatment or waiting for them to go on their own. We help educate the family on how they have made the addiction more comfortable and in a way that does not help the addicted person get well. We can only change what we have control over, and that is our own behavior.

Our drug and alcohol intervention programs provide families the professional assistance needed to make the best decisions about their loved ones. Our counselors work to ensure that your loved one and your family system have the best possible chance of long-term success.

Call now to speak with a professional interventionist who understands what you are going through: (877) 728-1122

Family First Intervention News & Articles

Enabling Addicts & Alcoholics