Addiction affects not only the person using but also those closest to them. Many people in active addiction assume that they aren’t doing anything that hurts anyone but themselves. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case though. The following guide walks you through a few ways your addiction may be affecting the ones you love.
Your Children May Feel Neglected
If you have children, there is a good chance you aren’t providing them with the love, attention, and support that you would be providing if you weren’t using. Drug addiction often becomes more important than anything else in your life. This means that you worry about how you are going to get your next fix more than worrying if your children have clean clothes on their backs or healthy foods in their belly.
There are many times when children also feel neglected emotionally. When you are high, you won’t react to the situation the same way that you would if you were sober. You may overreact to small things that happen negatively and react minimally when your children feel they need you to support them. If you talk to your children, they may be able to shine a light on how your addiction is affecting them. You don’t need to tell them that you have been using, but you can ask if there is anything you can do to build a better relationship with them. Children who know that they are loved and supported are able to succeed in life more than children who aren’t. It helps to boost their confidence, which can make it easier for them to take risks in the future within their career or education.
Your Parents May Worry
Those in active addiction often make riskier decisions than those who are sober. This can lead to them overdosing, being hospitalized or even being arrested. Your parents will worry about you nonstop when you are in active addiction. They will worry if you are safe or not because some of the people that you associate with may not be safe.
Your parents will worry that something bad could happen to you when you are high. There are many women who are raped or even murdered when they are high. When high, you aren’t able to react the same way you would when you were sober. This means that you may not be able to defend yourself well or may pass out altogether and not know what is going on.
Having drugs in your possession or being caught purchasing them is highly illegal. The consequences for having, buying, selling or even just using drugs can be extensive. Your parents will constantly worry that you are going to get caught with the drugs and going to end up going to jail. No one wants their child to become a convict, especially over things that are avoidable.
Addiction Can Affect How You Work
People in active addiction often think that they are performing the same way that they did when they weren’t using. They assume that because no one calls them out on their drug use they must be doing a good job hiding their addiction. This isn’t always the case. There are many employers who don’t want to confront someone in active addiction because they don’t know how they are going to react to the confrontation. This means that you could end up losing your job with little to no notice if your boss thinks that you are using.
It puts you and everyone you work with at risk if you use drugs. You could get hurt or accidentally hurt someone else during your workday. It also poses a threat to the security of a business because you could overlook something important or send confidential material where it shouldn’t be sent.
There are also legal ramifications to you using drugs and going to work. If you were to get into an accident while you had drugs in your system, the insurance company could require you to take a drug test. If you fail the test, you’ll be fired on the spot and could be held liable for all of the damage that was done. This could cause you to be in debt for years to come.
Your Relationships with Your Friends Could Suffer
Friendships often suffer when one of the friends has an addiction to drugs. People who don’t use drugs often want to distance themselves from those who do. This is because they don’t want the stigma that comes with drug addiction to fall on them. They also don’t want to have to deal with the unpredictable nature of those on drugs. There’s no way to know what someone will do when they are high on drugs and many people don’t want to put themselves at risk.
When you are in active addiction, you are also more selfish, and self-involved than you typically are. This may cause you to neglect the friendships that you have. Feeling like you don’t care as much as you once did could put a strain on your relationships and cause them to start to dissolve over time.
It’s important to realize that your drug addiction affects so many more people than just you. You need to be sure that you take the time to talk to the ones you love about how your addiction is affecting them. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to them about the situation, you may need to wait until you get help for your addiction. Going through a drug treatment program allows you to learn what caused you to start using drugs in the first place, what triggers you to want to use again and what you can do to try to avoid a relapse in the future. You can also work with a therapist to learn how to rebuild the relationships that you damaged so that you can have the best future possible. A great support system can make all the difference in the world when it comes to addiction recovery.
