What Now – When Your Loved One Drinks Too Much

family support services for addiction act

When your loved one drinks too much – what now?  After 16+ years of doing this work, even I am surprised by the significant increase in emails I’m receiving from readers under Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. They’ve discovered hidden bottles or caught their loved one in lies covering up their relapse. They’ve realized they just can’t…

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What To Do When Your Loved One is in Treatment

Your loved one has finally decided (or was left with no other option than) to seek treatment for their alcohol or other drug use disorder. You’ve long wanted and fought hard for this. But instead of feeling confident that all will be well, you feel a tumult of emotions. And perhaps the voice screaming loudest…

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Health Consequences of Secondhand Drinking | Drugging

The health consequences of secondhand drinking | drugging (SHD) can be as far-reaching as those experienced by the person with an alcohol or drug use disorder.  They are the impacts experienced by the family member or friend who is repeatedly on the receiving end of a person’s drinking or other drug use or substance use…

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Alcoholism is a Family Disease – Really

Lisa Frederiksen on the Family Disease of Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a family disease I was told by the staff at the residential treatment center my loved one entered for his alcoholism. “Oh brother, you can’t be serious!” I countered. “And what do you mean, I’m a codependent, an enabler, and that I should get help.  I don’t need help — he’s the one…

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Choosing to Forgive an Alcoholic

Choosing to forgive an alcoholic… Depending on how long you’ve been living and/or coping with a loved one’s alcoholism, this can be one of the most difficult concepts to grasp, let alone embrace – choosing to forgive your alcoholic. I’d repeatedly been told that alcoholism was like any other disease, and I wanted to (and…

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