How to help your addicted loved one get back on their feet

One of the biggest challenges that families and friends can face is having an addict among them. It can be hard to be on the same page because the behavior, thoughts, and habits of an addict are quite different from a sober person. This is one of the reasons why addicts and their loved ones are always in conflict.  

If you have a loved one struggling with addiction, and you want them to become sober, here are some tips to help you.

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Get educated on addiction and recovery

To help your loved one recover from addiction, you need to learn more about the concept of addiction and how they can recover. It is important to note that addiction is a disease that affects the normal functioning of the brain.

You also need to know that when an individual recovers from addiction, they might relapse if care is not taken. When you learn more about addiction, it becomes easier to put yourself in their shoes because you have an idea of what they are going through.

Actively listen to them

While you are trying to help your addicted loved one become sober, ensure you listen to them when they want to open up to you.

Sometimes, addicts need someone to talk to but everyone might seem to desert them, by not showing interest. When an addict talks to you, repeat some of their words to them, and ask questions. This will show them that you are interested in helping them get better.

Don’t isolate yourself from them

It is important not to isolate yourself from your addicted loved one especially if you think that their situation will affect you. Ensure that you are always there for them, and also look out for yourself to ensure you don’t engage in habits that might make you addicted.

Avoid having unrealistic expectations from them

When it comes to addiction and recovery, it is best not to expect too much from the addict. Be patient with them, and allow them to gradually complete the process of recovery.

Tips for The Addicted Church Member to Get Better

Addiction is not something church members are immune from; it is possible to have addicted church members.

The aim is to help them get better and recover, and this can be done through different means. The church can guide a person unto recovery from addiction.

Remember, that drug or alcohol addiction can come from external factors like peer pressure, addicted relatives, stress, and trauma, etc.

Whatever it is, the first step is to know the causes and signs of addiction. Then, you can use the following steps to help an addicted church member get better.

These steps include;

  • Compassion and Love

The addicted church member should not isolate from the church. Being in the fellowship with other believers is a good place to recover. The love and compassion expressed would help heal any negative emotions that led to drug or alcohol addiction, without condemnation.

  • Counselling

The addicted church member can seek counselling in church. The church is fully equipped spiritually and professionally to provide adequate counselling for people in need of it. So, addicts can trust the church to provide proper counselling to address any feeling they have.

  • Medical Help

Apart from opening up to the church, the addicted member should also seek medical help. Yes, the church can help with counselling and prayers, but addiction still requires medical evaluation. Dependence on chemical substances affects the functioning of the brain.

Therefore, the addicted member needs medical evaluation and consultation.

  • Christian Support Group

As a church member, it is vital that an addict gets support from the church. The people around an addict are vital to his/her recovery. Therefore, being around a Christian support group helps an addict get better.

A Christian support group not only care the sobriety of the addict, but also about the spiritual standing and well-being of such person.

You can attach some church members to the addict, who would help him/her remain accountable to their recovery, and committed to the things of God. A person will find new hope and life in Christ.

In summary, the church is instrumental to the recovery of an addict member. The addicted member has a role to play in his/her recovery. Some of these have been highlight above, even as the church continues to pray and express God’s love to such person.

How The Church Can Help Addicted Members

Addiction is a disease that requires professional help, but not one that a family member or church member cannot help with.

Beyond the general perspective, the church can take steps which would help an addict member recover. It may not be easy, but it isn’t impossible.

Before such person became an addict he/ she was a member of the church, and probably still is a member.

So, certain people in the church has influences over such an addict member, and can help the person fight off addiction. But these steps by the church have to be deliberate and specific.

Some of these steps include;

  • Identifying an Addict Member

Not everyone who skips church service is an addict. There are many reasons why people might skip services.

But the church needs to know how to identify an addict member. You look out for people withdrawing from everyone else and constantly irritated at everything.

  • Expressing Love

It is vital that an addict experiences support, especially from people they have a bond with.

So, one way the church can help an addict member is to show love. Just simply express the love of Christ to the person, knowing to God still loves him/her regardless of their current illness.

So, regard than keep pushing the person to repent or change, which can be frustrating for the addict member and possibly push the person away.

The church needs to express love to the person, showing forth the love of Christ. The person may be stubborn, deny, and push back; but the church needs to be patient in love.

  • Counselling

Some causes of addiction are stress, trauma, depression, anxiety, and other negative feelings. To help an addict member, the church can counsel him/her to help them overcome such negative feelings with the word of God.

Once these feelings are tackled, then the addict member can now address the addiction fully with professional help.

In summary, these are some ways in which the church can help an addict member. The church plays a major role in people’s lives, so members shouldn’t be pushed away due to drug or alcohol addiction.

But we should draw them closer in love, pray for them, and help them overcome such illness to the glory of God.

Counseling for addicted individuals in the church

One of the reasons why people remain addicted is because they do not have enough help. When help is given to addicted individuals, it would be easy for them to combat addiction and live healthily. Addiction exists in the church even though it is a spiritual place.

One fact people need to understand is, addiction is a brain disease. So, your spiritual status does not protect you if you do not do the right thing.

It is possible for a highly spiritual person to be suffering from addiction. And it would be because, he or she failed to put some important measures in place.

To help addicted people in the church, one of the important factors is counseling. In the addiction process, counseling is one of the primary components.

There are many reasons why counseling is important but one of the reasons why it stands out is because, it explains the concept of addiction.

Often times, people get addicted because they do not understand how it works. Usually, addiction starts off as an abuse before it becomes a full-fledged addiction.

However, with counseling, it becomes easy to understand how addiction works, how it can be combatted and how it can be avoided.

When you have knowledge of how something work, it gives you a good perspective. There are some people who are enjoying the addiction without being aware of the damage done to them.

With counseling, you are exposed to the potential adverse effects of addiction. And this would spur you to take action.

Counseling addicted individuals in the church comes with the inclusion of Biblical principles. For sure, addiction is a sin and it draws people away from God.

While the counselor is encouraging people to come out of their addiction problem, it is also an opportunity to preach the message of salvation to them.

With the place of professional counseling in the church which would typically come at no cost, individuals would be able to live healthily and free of addiction.

Sensitizing the church on the concept of addiction

The addiction problem is powerful enough to affect people irrespective of their race, religion, financial status and the likes. If care is not put in place, it can affect the church.

In the real sense, there are some people in the church who do not know they are addicted. While there are some who are aware.

Treating the concept of addiction in the church is usually treated from a different perspective.

Now, a church is a spiritual place that inculcates several biblical principles such as free giving, forgiveness, holy living and the likes. Also, you would find professionals from all walks of life in the church.

If there is a counselor in the church, he would not collect fees for giving professional advice. However, in the secular world, he would collect fees from clients. This is one of the benefits that the church stands to gain from having professionals who also come to worship.

The same applies to a healthcare professional who handles addiction cases. He or she can freely give tips and advice in the church. And you can be sure that they would come at no cost. However, if anyone of them needs treatment, it would be discussed professionally.

Discussing addiction in the church is very crucial. The fact is, a good number of addictive habits makes one sin against God, and they must be combatted.

Addiction is powerful and it can take someone far from God. In order to forestall this, it is important for the church to be actively involved in fighting addiction.

When the church helps its members to truly understand how addiction works and how they can help themselves, they would lead healthy lives.

Also, when addicted individuals enter for treatment, it is important for the church to show their support by sending some people to attend some group sessions.

Addiction is very powerful but provided the church is well-informed, they will be able to defeat it.

The Church is Not Immune to Addiction

church members succeptible to addictionTo many church goers, the church can mistakenly seem like a place that is free of addiction and mental disorder. To believe this would be a mistake. The church is a place for any kind of broken person or sinner to come find sanctuary from whatever is haunting them, and to find relief by focusing on God through worship and sermon. But addicts and people with mental disorders are not cured from their illnesses by attending church. Leaving behind something that is ingrained into your psychology is a process that requires time, effort and faith. The process is different for every person. To think that an entire congregation is free from these hardships is a fallacy.
The reason that a person can attend church and still struggle with addictions and mental disorders is that, while the church does its best to arrange a meeting place between people and God, a person’s wholeness depends on their relationship with God, not with the church. Sometimes people talk about the church as if it fully and accurately represents God, but this is a mistake. We must never forget that God is perfect and divine, and the church is a flawed human effort to honor him. Church leaders and congregation members are susceptible to dishonesty, money mismanagement, pride, laziness and a number of other sinful behaviors. As important as it is to have a Christian church family to commune with, the church can never replace the role God is meant to have in your life. God’s love and forgiveness has the power to end your addiction or mental disorder, not the church.
The church’s role is to create community among believers and to provide a place to come together to worship God as one. The bible says that when God returns, it will be to bring the church to heaven. The church is referred to as the “bride” of Christ, meaning those who have been faithful to his name are to be with him for eternity. This does not mean that the church is made up of people who have no sin or brokenness in their lives. It simply means they have accepted Jesus as their personal savior, which means their sin is forgiven and they will be allowed to approach the throne of God in heaven.

Prayer and Community Against Addiction

One of the best ways of fighting addiction is through prayer and community. The church has its faults, but one thing it has been praised for even by the secular world is its community building model. The church is long practiced at bringing people together to behave in a familial way as a community. This model has been in place for centuries, and has served as an example of how people can come together to support one another and become strong through friendship and love.

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This is important to those struggling with addiction, because often, a strong support system is exactly what an addict needs. Sadly, many people who are afflicted with addiction cannot count on their current support system, because they may enable their addiction or contribute to the mental problems that influence their addiction. For people like this especially, it is very important to find a stable support system that can be counted on to lift them up in moments of weakness.

The church seldom has its doors closed. One of a church’s functions is to be available to its congregation many hours in a week. Active churches schedule events to take place most evenings during the week and on weekends as well. Small groups form so that like-minded people can commune together and individual friendships flourish so that people can develop close relationships. A huge benefit to attending church is that it keeps a person occupied. Having plenty of ways to keep your mind busy and your schedule full is a key to defeating addiction.

Another powerful asset the church can offer is prayer. Prayer is a fundamental practice to Christians and the power of prayer should never be underestimated. Praying to God is literally speaking to him your thoughts, praise and communication. What Christians the world over attest to is that praying invokes a response from God himself, whether it is immediate or in his time. Many recovering addicts agree that the power of prayer worked supernatural wonders within them to fight their addiction and restore them to healthy minds.

Christian Addiction Awareness

addiction christian awarenessAwareness of addiction in the church has grown in recent years, but it is still found to be lacking within many church communities. Some churches can still be found to treat addiction like leprosy. There is nothing they have to say about it other than to get rid of it. But this does not accurately reflect the stance that the whole Christian community takes on addiction. Many other churches know that addiction is as common as it is because it is a powerful and legitimate foe. These churches approach the subject of addiction with a healthy level of respect, awareness and sympathy.

Presently, the modern church is divided on the matter of how to approach addiction. The church has historically been very willing to label addiction as sin, and qualify it as a punishable behavior. Many conservative churches still follow this approach to addiction, which is quickly becoming antiquated and inappropriate. The more modern, progressive church is willing to acknowledge how prevalent addiction is and treat it like a disease or a disorder rather than simply a sinful lifestyle. They also accept the accuracy of the statistics that reflect how many congregation members are likely to struggle with addiction.

In the future, it is the hope of this blogger that addiction will continue to be addressed as a common and widespread problem so that church members can have real dialogue about it. There are so many congregation members who would benefit from addiction being not only an acceptable thing to discuss openly within the church, but also being a forgivable thing to their church community. If addicts felt safe within the church universally, there would be far more progress made in the lives of addicts because they would more readily have the support they needed from their community. Hopefully the church will continue to recognize the need for addiction support and discussion within the church to be an inclusive organization.

Addiction Services Within the Church

Traditional, conservative churches often do not even discuss the ever present reality of addiction, but the tides are beginning to turn on this matter. Progressive churches everywhere understand how serious a battle against addiction is and want to help the addicted members of their congregation rather than condemn addiction and offer no help with it.

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It has long been the tradition in the church to dismiss addiction as blatant sin and idolatry. The solution offered for addiction was simply ‘Don’t do it,’ which, as we have observed, is far too simplistic to be useful to the complex problem of addiction. This obtuse dismissal has resulted in very high addiction statistics within the church which can no longer be denied. Progressive churches are recognizing the need for addiction support within the church, and the following services are slowly becoming available within the church community:

  • Counseling for addicts. Most addicts are in too deep to dig themselves out of their addiction and need the help of a mental health professional in order to begin their recovery.
  • Counseling for the families of addicts. The family of an addict suffers a great deal watching their loved one struggle with addiction and require counseling in order to process the fearful and frustrating realities they have encountered.
  • Referrals to christian rehabs. Pastors, elders and mental health professionals within the church can guide and direct cases of severe addiction to a Christian rehab, where they can recover in an environment that their faith is protected within.
  • Support groups within the church. Truly progressive churches have congregation members who are unafraid to admit to their struggles with addiction and are allowed to organize support groups within the church to lift each other up through their struggles.
  • Worship sessions and services specifically for addicts. Programs are emerging across North America that are meant to give addicts and substance abusers a safe place to worship and hear a sermon on nights of the week when substance abuse normally commences.

Addiction Services Within the Church

Traditional, conservative churches often do not even discuss

Recovery Church

the ever present reality of addiction, but the tides are beginning to turn on this matter. Progressive churches everywhere understand how serious a battle against addiction is and want to help the addicted members of their congregation rather than condemn addiction and offer no help with it.

It has long been the tradition in the church to dismiss addiction as blatant sin and idolatry. The solution offered for addiction was simply ‘Don’t do it,’ which, as we have observed, is far too simplistic to be useful to the complex problem of addiction. This obtuse dismissal has resulted in very high addiction statistics within the church which can no longer be denied. Progressive churches are recognizing the need for addiction support within the church, and the following services are slowly becoming available within the church community:

  • Counseling for addicts. Most addicts are in too deep to dig themselves out of their addiction and need the help of a mental health professional in order to begin their recovery.
  • Counseling for the families of addicts. The family of an addict suffers a great deal watching their loved one struggle with addiction and require counseling in order to process the fearful and frustrating realities they have encountered.
  • Referrals to christian rehabs. Pastors, elders and mental health professionals within the church can guide and direct cases of severe addiction to a Christian rehab, where they can recover in an environment that their faith is protected within.
  • Support groups within the church. Truly progressive churches have congregation members who are unafraid to admit to their struggles with addiction and are allowed to organize support groups within the church to lift each other up through their struggles.
  • Worship sessions and services specifically for addicts. Programs are emerging across North America that are meant to give addicts and substance abusers a safe place to worship and hear a sermon on nights of the week when substance abuse normally commences.