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Dear Editor:
Are you loving an addict to death? Loving someone to death would be labeled as enabling them. Enabling is to excuse, justify, ignore, deny, and smooth over the addiction. This allows the addicted person to avoid facing the full consequences of their addiction. These consequences are typically the reason a person would hit "rock bottom" and they would reach out for help. If they don't have consequences why should they stop? They are allowed to ignore responsibilities he or she would otherwise be expected to handle themselves. You enable them by giving them money, paying for a car and phone, paying or providing a place to live, and bailing them out of jail. You love them by giving them food, seeking professional help, getting them treatment, answering when they call, and taking their addiction serious. Enabling creates a very dysfunctional relationship where the enabler lives there whole life around the needs and poor decisions of the addicted person. Enabling a person can put them in there grave. When you stop enabling the person it does not mean you stop loving them. Learn healthy ways to help them.
Click here to learn more about enabling and when it goes too far https://www.narconon-suncoast.org/blog/when-does-not-enabling-an-addict-go-too-far.html.
Written by: Shauna Krout
Clearwater, FL