Dealing With An Addicted Loved One

Every year, the National Institute on Drug Abuse releases the Monitoring the Future Survey, which takes an extensive and thorough look at the substance abuse trends among youth and high school-aged students. The survey studies roughly 42,500 students from around 400 different high schools across the country, asking them detailed questions about their past and present drug and alcohol use. While a significant number of 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th graders experiment with chemical substances like alcohol and marijuana, very few develop substance abuse disorders before the age of 18. However, adolescents that regularly abuse chemical substances are far more likely to develop addictive disorders by the time they officially enter adulthood. It is also not impossible for an adolescent or a young adult to develop an addictive disorder before they reach the age of 18.

If you are living with an addictive child, there is a good chance that you are at a complete loss. Living with an addicted loved one of any age can be devastating, but watching your own child suffer at the hands of addiction can be too much to bear. If you have a child who is suffering from a substance abuse disorder of any type or severity, it is crucial that they enter into a professional addiction treatment program before the disorder progresses any further. The older your child gets, the more difficult it will become to overcome addiction. At The Immersion Program we offer age-specific treatment options to adolescents and young adults that have fallen victim to substance abuse. Our youth programs are unique in that the family is very heavily involved. We understand that in many cases – when youth are concerned – it is logical for them to return home after inpatient treatment comes to an end rather than living in a sober living house long-term. For this reason, it is absolutely crucial that healthy family functioning is restored before inpatient treatment comes to an end.

Getting Your Child Into Treatment

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explain that parents play an absolutely integral role in the life of their child – no matter what the circumstances.  When it comes to adolescents, heavy drinking is the most common form of substance abuse – and the majority of this heavy drinking takes place in social settings. If you have noticed that your child is struggling with alcohol abuse, you have likely tried to enforce a strict set of rules and boundaries. Of course, when an individual of any age is actually suffering from a substance abuse disorder, simply telling them what to do or threatening consequences if they refuse to “behave” does not do the trick. Addiction treatment will be necessary – and therein lies the tricky part. How do you get your child into treatment?
There are several steps that you can take – if these steps are not effective, hiring a professional interventionist is often extremely beneficial. Children tend to respond better to an unbiased third-party – someone who is not their parents, and someone who they do not feel threatened by. At The Immersion Program we have licensed and compassionate interventionists on staff who have extensive experience working with young adults and their families. If you give us a call at any point in time, we will immediately put you in touch with an experienced interventionist who will walk you through the initial steps of staging a professional and effective intervention.

In the meantime, here are some other steps you can take to get your child into addiction treatment.

• Have a calm and non-judgemental conversation – Express your concern in a level-headed manner – suggest that boundaries will have to be put into place and maintained if your child does not agree to commit to receiving professional help.
• Listen to your child as he or she expresses concern – Is your child stressed out because of school? Is your child being bullied by classmates. Has your child been peer-pressured into using drugs and/or alcohol? Try speaking with your child about problem areas and working through them in healthy and effective ways.
• Try using incentives – Tie the incentives into receiving professional help. For example, “If you agree to attend this treatment program for at least one month, we will help you put a down payment towards your first car.” This is bribing, in a way, but it really does make a significant difference when it comes to willingly seeking necessary professional help.
• If your child poses a serious threat to his or herself or to others, you may be able to legally mandate treatment – There are currently 38 states throughout the US that allow parents to civilly commit their children to inpatient or outpatient addiction treatment programs. If you are curious to learn more about related laws in your current place of residence, feel free to reach out to The Immersion Program’s treatment advisors at your earliest possible convenience.

Healing Comprehensively

When it comes to addiction treatment, it is absolutely crucial that the family heals as a unit. At The Immersion Program we offer comprehensive family therapy programs, providing the loved ones of our clients with all of the tools, services and resources they need to heal individually and comprehensively. We understand (many of us firsthand) how devastating it can be to watch your child suffer at the hands of a serious and life-threatening addictive disorder. We also understand how helpless you might feel when it comes to encouraging your loved one to seek the professional help he or she so desperately needs. At The Immersion Program we do everything in our power to ensure that effective treatment is accessible to all those who need it, and that it is received in a timely manner. Addiction is a progressive, relapsing brain disease – when left untreated the symptoms of addiction only continue to worsen – they never resolve on their own. Medical detox and inpatient treatment are necessary stages on the lifelong road to long-term recovery.

The Immersion Program

At The Immersion Program we offer youth-specific treatment programs for those who are under the age of 18 and who have been suffering at the hands of a substance abuse or dependence disorder. The disease of addiction does not discriminate – it affects boys and girls, men and women of all ages and walks of life. We understand how devastating it can be to watch a loved one of any age suffer from addiction. Watching your child lose his or her sense of sense and fall victim to substance abuse is absolutely heart-wrenching. You might feel hopeless and alone, stuck in a rut and unsure of what steps to take. At The Immersion Program, we are ready and available to help every single step of the way – from the admissions process all the way through the development of a viable aftercare plan. We also understand that young adults tend to be very stubborn-minded. Couple this stubbornness with the disease of addiction and you have a recipe for rebellion. For this reason, we have licensed interventionists on staff to help you organize a professionally staged intervention if your unique case calls for one. No matter what recovery-related services you need, we have you completely covered.
If your child has been suffering from drug addiction, The Immersion Program is available to help. Simply give us a call today and our treatment advisors will walk you through the admissions process while answering any additional questions you may have.