Loving An Addict

 

When someone you love battles addiction you will see things you never thought you would. You hear about it everywhere but you never think it's something that could happen to someone close to you. You hear about the withdrawals, shakes, and the relapses. I have watched people I barely knew go through this. I have witnessed Narcan administered to someone I passed by at a get together. I never imagined that it would happen to someone close to me. I never thought that someone I cared about would be dealing with that kind of pain.

Many people want to walk away from them. Others want to stay and support. Some decide to be there through the shakes, shivers and withdrawals.

I have learned so much from my experience. I have learned compassion that I couldn't have learned from anywhere else. I learned that it is possible to love someone without approving of their decisions. I learned heartbreak. It's a different kind of heartbreak. The kind of heartbreak where you see the person you knew being robbed of everything you know they can be.

I am not trying to romanticize addiction. It is the one thing that takes over their life. This is not me accepting where or who they are. This is me trying to bring awareness. To bring hope to those who feel lost.

Self-destruction feels more like a survival. You can try, but you cannot fix them. They are in charge of their own recovery. Nothing will change unless they want it. Just be there, don't lose hope in them.

Let them know they are never alone. Sometimes if feels like the entire world is against them. That everything is falling apart. Just simply be there.