Category: Mental health (Page 1 of 2)

Spiritual Direction at Integrity Counseling Services — White pebble stone on a sand

Which Do I Choose: Priest, Counselor, Therapist or Spiritual Director?

By Teri Love, MS — Friends and family members, even the ones who seem to “get” what a therapist does, often ask for clarification.

Can you prescribe medication? (No.) Can you work with all ages? (Yes.) Do you work with anxiety? (Yes.) Depression? (Yes.) Can you work with someone struggling with their faith or their sexuality or their grief? (Yes. Yes. Yes.) Okay, well . . . can I just talk to my priest? Or, what if I need spiritual direction?

These are good and valid questions, and it might be helpful for you or someone you know to learn the similarities and differences between pastoral counseling, therapy,and spiritual direction.

Pastoral Counseling
What it is: Guidance or help from a parish priest, deacon or other trusted professional within the Church. Pastoral counseling should be solution-oriented and limited in number (depending on the schedule of the priest). Perhaps ideally, pastoral counseling may be a bridge to more in-depth therapy or spiritual direction with a different type of professional.

My parish priest told me that parishioners sometimes seek help after things come up in Confession: anger, resentment, an inability to forgive someone, or addiction issues. He said when he detects an issue, he asks if the parishioner wants to deal with it. He may offer to sit down and talk but said, “I try not to do ongoing counseling because it doesn’t work out. The difference between a priest and a clinician is that pastoral counseling is free and I can’t do this five or six weeks in a row. I don’t have the liberty of time.”

The level of expertise a priest offers for spiritual direction or related goals depends on their experience, training and circumstances. Priests may obtain Masters’ level training or higher in therapy, or intentionally attend conferences on mental health to keep informed about parishioner concerns.

If you are unsure whether your priest is open to and available for pastoral counseling, call your parish office and ask!

Therapy
What it is: Therapy or professional counseling typically refers to treatment by a trained and licensed clinician. The clinician is qualified to help address concerns including trauma, grief, anxiety, adjustment, depression, relationship conflicts and addiction.

Often there is a cost — time and money — for this type of treatment. There is evidence from research that healing can happen in therapy.

Many therapists specialize and have additional expertise in treating certain mental health concerns. Be sure to ask about this when you look for a therapist. Also, the top indicator for positive outcome in therapy is your rapport with the therapist. It is important that your therapist has professional training — and it is important that you can develop trust and get along!

Know your goal for therapy. It can be as simple as “Decrease anxiety” or as complicated as “Work to forgive my parents.” When you are ready to call a therapist, ask any questions you have about qualifications, specializations, and cost.

Spiritual Direction
What it is: My priest defined spiritual direction as “help with your relationship with God.” Spiritual direction may share elements of both pastoral counseling and therapy but emphasis is on discerning God’s will and/or improving your prayer life.

For example, a person might see a spiritual director to learn daily prayer disciplines, virtue or more deeply grasp God’s role in their life.

Some priests offer formal and informal spiritual direction. There are also trained spiritual directors who schedule sessions and charge a fee. As with therapy, there is usually a clear goal and process for the sessions.

If you are unsure what type of help you are looking for, talk to your parish priest or call Integrity Counseling Services. Our qualified staff offers therapy services and spiritual direction from a faithful Catholic perspective.

Pastoral counselors, therapists and spiritual directors are all trained to help, and all three offer hope.

Finding Freedom in Suffering

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor 3:17)

By Jennifer Lindner, MA, Certified Spiritual Director — Suffering is inevitable, but sometimes it can be made worse by another pervasive feeling: stuckness. The source of our suffering can cause us to feel heavy or worried or scared. But feeling stuck can lead us to feel even more anxiety or sadness. We might even feel emotionally or spiritually paralyzed. Suffering, it seems, steals our freedom; we cannot extricate ourselves from our circumstances, nor do we feel like we can choose how to think or move forward. What if, however, we could look at our suffering in a different way? What if we could encounter God in the stuckness? We know that wherever God is, so also is there freedom, and He wants us to find it.

What does it feel like when we’re stuck in our suffering? Maybe we ask, “How can this be happening?” Or we demand, “Why, Lord?” The Psalms reflect the hopelessness we feel. “I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart” (Ps 38:8). Fatigue and grief rob us of our ability to think and move freely. “My heart throbs, my strength fails me; and the light of my eyes — it also has gone from me” (Ps 38:10).

Turning to the Lord, though, even just enough to obtain a little space from our pain, we remember He is with us. “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul” (Ps 94:19). In crying out to God, we trust He will help us. Like the Canaanite woman, we cry, “Lord, help me” (Matt 15:25), and we wait in hope for His answer, “[G]reat is your faith! Let it be done for you as you desire” (15:28).

God’s closeness strengthens us, and our trust in Him loosens our spiritual paralysis. We might not feel entirely free, but we no longer feel alone. The Lord unlocks the doors to our hearts. “I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Ps 34:4). He descends into our spiritual prisons and liberates us. “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them” (Ps 34:7).

Ultimately, God seeks to encounter us in the midst of our suffering so He can set us free. Sometimes we cry out to Jesus like the blind men: “Have mercy on us, Son of David” (Matt 9:27). Other times, Jesus finds us, as when he confronts the long-suffering man at the Sheep Gate: “Do you want to be healed?” (Jn 5:6). God repeatedly invites us to understand how we are most free not apart from suffering, but rather when we discover He is our refuge in the storm of our pain. It is there, during our times of need, that God calls us closest to Himself. As Paul tells us, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” because God is Truth, and wherever there is Truth, there too will we find freedom.

Where might you be feeling stuck or paralyzed today? What is pressing on your heart right now? Where, with God’s help, could you notice the freedom He is inviting you to experience? Where is He asking you to look for it? Prayer? Quiet? Beauty? Laughter? Rest? Follow Him. He will meet you there.

New Year’s Resolution S.M.A.R.T. Goals

By Anna Pecoraro, Ph.D. — If you are reading this, chances are that you have a New Year’s Resolution. Unfortunately — as we all know — many of these resolutions end up not happening. But when they do, great things can occur.

It is best to start small and use a S.M.A.R.T. Goal framework, to be successful. Here are some practical steps:

There are a number of areas in which you could set a goal for yourself. Some of these include: personal, emotional, financial, social, physical/exercise, job and educational.
Ask yourself: What do I need to do the most? And, what am I most likely to actually do? (The answers may not be the same!)
It’s OK to choose the goal that you are most likely to do. (However, if you really want to address a ‘big’ goal that you are not likely to do, break it up into small steps. Start with a step that you think that you would actually do.)
Make your goal into a S.M.A.R.T. Goal:

Specific: Be very specific and precise. Here is an example for the domain of exercise: Improve my core and back by doing sit-ups every day for the next 30 days starting today.

Measurable: How would I measure this? I could say that I am going to do 10 sit-ups per day, every day of the week before getting into bed at night. I could keep track of it on a calendar.

Achievable/Attainable: 10 sit-ups per day are very attainable for most people.

Relevant: Sit-ups are very relevant to having a healthy core and a healthy back.

Time-Bound: The goal is bound by time in two ways: every day, for 30 days. When the 30 days are up, I can set another goal with sit-ups, etc.

Integrity Counseling Services - A.I. Article

We are Irreplaceable

By Michael Kastelnik, Psy.D. — We are in the midst of large technological changes in our society. In the past, I have remarked about the ubiquity of electronics in our lives, and suggested ways to limit exposure to such technology for the sake of mental health. While the suggestion stands to aim for incorporating electronics in our lives in a healthy and balanced way, taking such steps may not prevent what is about to happen in our society and impact many aspects of our lives.

We have already been witnessing the smart phone becoming a one-stop shop for facilitating the provision of human needs short of actually feeding, clothing and sheltering people. As prevalent as this current so-called smart technology is, the next generation will most assuredly be more ubiquitous — and even invasive — such as through wearable or implanted devices. This will no doubt have implications for our attention span, health and relationships.

There is a buzz these days about the glories of artificial intelligence, or A.I. Generative A.I. will be involved in the creation of much content. As a consequence, some people may begin to accept a blending of real and imaginary images, sounds and even concepts in a sort of hyperreality, while others may become skeptical of most or everything they have come to know and believe. Assuredly, many will take for granted the access to quick answers for simple straightforward questions. But not all questions in life are simple. “How is my relationship with God these days?” or “Am I called to priesthood or marriage?” or “What is the significance of this particular suffering that God is allowing in my life?” This is where we need to remember our humanity and the gift of reason rather than depending solely on data.

Some are saying that A.I. in conjunction with robotics will take over many of the tasks that people normally do. In the best-case scenario, we are being promised a world where we don’t have to worry about the necessities of life such as manual labor but we can rather focus on activities such as leisure. As appealing as this scenario may sound, the issue of automation raises the concern about the elimination of jobs and the displacement laborers in the workforce. This could devastate many people who place a lot of significance in their work that they enjoy, by which they feed their households, in which they excel, or in which they find meaning for their lives. I am aware of St. Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians that those who don’t work shall not eat. We must bring our Christian values to bear on a situation where many people may become unemployed or underemployed as a consequence of technological developments in society.

As human beings with infinite dignity, we all have intrinsic value that cannot be diminished regardless of our job status. That being said, while more jobs are threatened with automation and therefore elimination, there are things we can do to help ourselves. We can attempt to demonstrate our value to our bosses or to our customers by “selling ourselves” just a little better and showing just how necessary our work is and how indispensable we are. We may learn a few more skills to make our case even stronger. The adage “You get what you pay for” comes to mind, as cost efficiency is one of the selling points of A.I. and robotics. In the event that our jobs go away, we can rely on internal resources like our relationship with the Lord and tap into our own resilience such as by creatively brainstorming all of our resources, human connections and opportunities. This is your right and responsibility- — you cannot be replaced.

The Difference Between Excuses and Explanations

By Gian Milles, M.S. — I sometimes have people come into my office saying they “don’t like excuses.” “This is great! Me neither,” I usually retort. However, it can be a problem when people conflate “excuses” with “explanations.” I see this when people respond to my questions of “why?” (e.g., Why did you use alcohol for years despite the harm that it caused you and your family?) by stating that they “don’t like excuses.”

I respond by telling them that the difference between excuses and explanations may be subtle, but in reality, they are completely different. Put simply, excuses are used to avoid taking personal responsibility for a wrong action. They may include truthful information, but they always misuse it. The subtext is usually “it wasn’t my fault.” For example, someone might say, “I used alcohol because my wife was not intimate with me as often as I wanted.” It may be true that your wife was not intimate with you as much as you’d like, but it is not her fault that you used alcohol. We can be influenced by circumstances and other people, but we cannot be controlled by them. Of course, there are certain exceptions, such as if a person is threatened or coerced into a certain action, in which case they bear little to no culpability for their action.

On the contrary, explanations are thoroughly rooted in facts, context or circumstances. They admit guilt while still telling the full picture of what happened. An example here is: “When I am away on business, I often wind up drinking.” This presents the fact of using in the context of a situation where the person likely feels lonely while refraining from blaming someone or something for their actions.

Excuses keep us stuck. They put the blame on someone or something we cannot control. They do not offer freedom and hope for a way forward with a better outcome. Conversely, explanations help us grow in self-understanding and self-awareness. They help us develop insight as to how we got to a certain place in our lives where we did something that caused ourselves and our loved ones significant harm. Excuses make things less clear, while explanations make them clearer.

This insight is a necessary ingredient for change. When we do not understand how something happened, we cannot take the required steps to make sure those circumstances do not happen again. Excuses rob us of the ability to change for the better, while explanations are tools that allow us to forge a new way marked by integrity, wholeness and love. They allow us to repair the harm we have caused and prevent it from happening again. They are our ticket to a better future.

We have a God of second chances. No matter what we have done, the opportunity for change and reconciliation is available to us. We only need the courage to take it.

Managing Everything But Time

By Michael Kastelnik, Psy.D. – “Time management” is a funny phrase. To see what I mean, take the concept of management as largely understood in a business context. Companies all over the world spend a lot of time and effort to make sure their laborers can get the job done. Sometimes the mere presence of managers helps to keep people honest and ensure they are actually working and not slacking off or engaging in some other activity that is bad for business. This all makes sense with managing people that you can influence, but it makes less sense with such an invaluable yet intangible resource such as time. Nevertheless, there are other aspects of our lives over which we have more obvious control, albeit some of us more than others. I’m talking about things such as energy, stress and attention.

Like with many aspects of life, managing energy levels is relevant to the conversation. As such, any advice on improving time management will include the usual components of self-care such as proper diet, exercise or comparable activity, adequate sleep, maintaining wholesome relationships and stress management. In fact, stress management is a complex skill in itself and it may be fundamental to time management inasmuch as you need to have just the right amount of arousal to complete a task, according to the Yerkes-Dodson model of productivity. Too little concern for a task will literally get you nowhere, while too much concern can lead to progressively worse outcomes. Mistakes can occur. Burnout is an outcome when people are putting in more effort with no more output in the product. And, of course, health problems occur in the short term and over time when people get too stressed. Physiology is simple enough to regulate with activities such as slow, deep breathing or jumping jacks, while mental stress relief may involve something like journaling about concerns.

Attention is another resource that may require more discipline to regulate. We all tend to focus on things we find interesting and space out on boring tasks. Becoming your own behavioral therapist and limiting the interesting things to serve as a reward for the more mundane tasks could not only help you get your work done but could also build a resistance to forming unbalanced habits with things that exploit our attention, such as electronic devices.

In addition to short-term tactics to stay on task, it is also necessary to step back and make sure we are balancing efficiency, the ability to do tasks using less time, money or energy, with effectiveness, which is a positive contribution to our goals.

For example, let’s say you have a goal to build a stone wall on the front of your property. If you know you have a lot of large stones in your backyard, you may decide to start by gathering those stones and bringing them to the other side in the most efficient way possible. You could figure out how to reduce the likelihood of injury by lifting the rocks with a certain technique. You might utilize a simple machine, such a wheelbarrow, to do it quickly with simple machines like a wheelbarrow. You may be tempted to feel so proud of your method that you move the rocks to the backyard again because you can. Maybe that last activity sounds far fetched, but the point is that if the emphasis falls too much on efficiency, you may lose sight of other important things such as implementing the rest of the steps needed to complete the wall, maintaining it, and having a rationale why you are building it that you can instill in your children, who could in turn maintain or improve the wall when their time comes. The point of this example is to show how we need the ability to pause from our work periodically or even regularly to make sure we are growing in virtue and working towards worthwhile goals and not simply keeping busy.

So, what can we do if managing our time seems like such a complex task? We can pray that the Holy Ghost enable us to use His gifts such as wisdom. We can ask for counsel from respected elders and mentors on how to grow in prudence regarding particular problems we would like to solve. We can start where we are and acknowledge what we have some control over, such as self-care and attention, as well as those that we don’t control and could therefore benefit from avoiding worrying about, such as the passage of time. This is the Serenity Prayer in action. While we may not control time, there is a lot we all can do to make the most of it.

Hope for Teens with Specific Strategies

By Gian Milles, M.S., L.P.C. — We hear a lot today about the mental health crisis in teenagers. While it is true that teen mental health in America has been declining since the early 2010s, there is also reason for hope. According to research from the CDC, about 3 in 5 children ages 6 to 17 exhibit indicators of flourishing, including showing interest in learning new things, staying calm and in control when faced with a challenge, and working to finish tasks they start. Sometimes, with sensationalistic news and no shortage of geopolitical instability, we can be tempted to focus only on the negative. Depending on whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, you may see the 3/5 figure as comforting (over half of our children are healthy!) or worrisome (nearly half of our children are unhealthy!). Either way, I want to share some good news with you.

If you are one of those people who are happy to hear that 3/5 of children are healthy, I rejoice with you. This is certainly a wonderful thing that so many children are doing so well despite the adversity they are facing in our tumultuous times. On the other hand, if you are concerned about those that are not or if you know a young person who is struggling, there is reason for hope.

Psychologists have defined hope as willpower + waypower. What does this mean? It means that having hope consists of having the mental energy or motivation to achieve clear goals and specific pathways, or mental plans, for being able to make these goals happen. With proper coaching, the 40% of children and teens who are experiencing significant anxiety and/or depression can grow in the virtue of hope, and hopeful people are protected against strong, persistent emotions such as anxiety and depression. Helping teens to stay motivated by offering them incentives (e.g. taking them to a sporting event or a trip to Rita’s Water Ice) can be helpful. If it appears that they are motivated, but are having trouble with follow-through, It can also be helpful to help them problem-solve with specific ways they can achieve their goals. This may involve guiding them through building more effective study habits, improving their diet, or helping them to join a sports team or get a gym membership.

In the context of these strategies, the most powerful force for good in a child’s life is unconditional love. Kobe Bryant advocated for this in one of Bryant’s last interviews. When you tell a child that you love them no matter how they behave, and, what’s more, that God loves them no matter how they behave, this gives teens the freedom to take risks, knowing that failure does not threaten their inherent dignity and lovability.

This combination of unconditional love along with specific goals, motivation, and pathways to success are the resources that allow teens to effectively experience the freedom from anxiety and depression that God and we desire for them.

Having a Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit: What Does that Really Mean?

By Cindy Dowling, M.A., L.M.F.T. — How many times have you heard the importance of having a healthy mind, body and spirit to live your life to the fullest? It is something that I share the importance of with my clients. You may be wondering what exactly that means. Read on . . .

A healthy mind is the ability to maintain emotional balance, cognitive clarity and mental resilience. A state of mind where you have control or authority over the negative thoughts that pop into your head daily. Studies have shown we have over 6,000 thoughts a day. Those thoughts affect our actions and reactions to situations and people in our lives. When one lets their thoughts cause them to get stuck in the past (past regrets/mistakes/ losses/failures) it leads to depression. When one lets their thoughts lead to over-thinking fears of the future, a person can suffer from anxiety. A healthy mind also includes emotional stability, the ability to process and express feelings in a healthy way, and the capacity to adapt to change or adversity. Finally, maintaining a healthy mind means taking care of your emotional needs, setting boundaries, and nurturing your sense of self-worth and purpose.

To maintain a healthy body there are many avenues to explore. Your diet should be full of nutritious, minimally processed foods including a healthy supply of fruits and vegetables. If you typically eat healthy, you will know when you eat something unhealthy because you can feel it in how your body functions. It’s like putting the wrong fuel in your car and then it just doesn’t run the way it should. You should exercise regularly. When you exercise, your body naturally produces endorphins which help regulate your body’s response to stress and anxiety, and contribute to a feeling of overall well-being. Sleep (7-9 hours a night) and hydration are also important pieces to having a healthy body. Finally, avoiding unhealthy habits such as smoking/vaping, drinking alcohol and drug use is important.

A healthy spirit would include having a sense of inner peace and being confident in your religious values and practices. A healthy spirit is nurtured with a disciplined prayer life that encompasses gratitude, compassion and self-reflection. It would include a personal relationship with God that instills a sense of belonging to the body of Christ and a deeper meaning for life.

Working to maintain a healthy mind, body and spirit can help keep you functioning in an optimal condition and enhance your overall quality of life. If you feel you are lacking or struggling in one of these areas and may need the help of a mental health practitioner, please give our office a call to set up a consultation with one of our therapists. God bless.

No Electronic Substitutes for Prayer

By Michael Kastelnik, Psy.D. — If you have been out in public in the last few years and patronized a business, you may have noticed some advertising that recommends you to “Download the App” that is pertinent to that business. This advertisement usually offers some reward, such as free gasoline or a free sandwich, for your downloading the free app. I’m reminded of the expression “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” but we can discuss the true cost another time. Whether you participate in it or not, I think we can agree these companies are successful in using this technique of reinforcing our purchases, and sometimes even giving them the not-so-subtle name of a “Rewards Program.”

Given the power of incentives to shape our behavior, is it possible that the appeal of making our lives easier applies to less worldly activities than eating, such as thinking or praying? There are plenty of websites, applications and content related to intellectual endeavors and even to our faith. In fact, you are probably reading this article on a website. I personally enjoy finding the occasional video, podcast or prayer on the Internet. Some of these activities are “infotainment” that can help pass the time as well as provide me with some level of information that can inform my worldview and my faith. I can even stay connected with my brothers in Christ around the world via email or other apps.

A problem arises if we consider simply engaging with religious electronic content as fulfilling our Christian duty, or worse — vaguely being a “good person.” We can consume such content both passively and actively. The passive reception of content, such as displaying sacred art on the walls of your home or hearing an audio recording of Gregorian chant while you do chores, surely has its benefits. And, attentively reading threads in a group chat or listening to a recording of someone praying can be quite engaging and even an invitation to pray on your own. The Holy Spirit can speak to us through other people including the words of a book or the recorded voice of someone expounding on theology. Those words can even be the content of prayer, but the words themselves are not a substitute for the activity required of us to speak to Him in prayer. Hearing a recording of the rosary playing in the background is probably better than hearing a lot of what is on the radio today. But passive listening, while helpful for reinforcing learning of a foreign language, probably doesn’t count as prayer time, especially if that is the only time you are giving to God. Just as the Greek meaning of the word liturgy suggests, it is the work of the people, and work typically requires producing rather than merely consuming.

Given the challenge of incorporating technology in our lives while preserving our humanity, what can we do? Even if using this technology is more necessary to work, study, shop and communicate, there are some aspects of our lives that we can and must retain in simplicity.

For example, we can pray. We can spend time speaking to God and attempting to quiet your mind in order for your soul to hear what He has to say. Practice meditating on Truth using a good translation of the Bible and a commentary from the Church Fathers. Pencil this time in your calendar or planner, if necessary. If you don’t have a minute or two to spare for prayer, you might want to consider freeing up your schedule a bit. Also, you can make rules for limiting your electronics use to certain times and/or places. With the rest of your time, try to incorporate activities with flesh-and-blood people around you and more stable objects around you such as plants or books.

Even if our devices help us exchange information with each other and allow you to spread good ideas including the Good News, it is up to us to use our whole being, not just our digital profile or consumption habits, to follow the commandments to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. There isn’t an app for that, and that’s okay.

Drug and Alcohol Addictions: Causes and Enabling vs. Helping

By Gian Milles, MS, LPC, Integrity Counseling Services

Causes of Drug and Alcohol Addictions

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, people begin taking drugs for one or any combination of four reasons:
1) to feel good
2) to feel better if they are feeling bad
3) to improve performance or psychological functioning
4) curiosity and peer pressure.
I believe this is exactly right. This means that when people have an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol, this addiction serves a function.

All of us want to feel good. I do not know anyone who enjoys feeling bad, purely for the experience of feeling bad. Some people may enjoy the pain of a good workout (I do), but it is really the challenging of the mind and the growing of the body that people are after. The pain for its own sake would not be worth it. Even people who engage in self-harm or suicide are typically attempting to alleviate some sort of intense suffering.

At the same time, every single one of us chooses to do things that make us feel bad. We each have bad habits that we are struggling to kick. In this way, we all suffer from addictions. Addiction, as a human phenomenon, is more a matter of degree and type than it is about certain people being built a certain way.

While it is true that we all have addictions, some are certainly more severe than others. My inability to put the stinkin’ remote down and stop watching the second season of Narcos on Netflix (yes, I binge-watched it this past week) is not severe enough to prevent me from going to work. We are all in this together, but some people more than others have addictions that interfere with daily functioning. See the work of experts Dr. Gabor Mate and Dr. Anna Lembke to provide a more comprehensive case for this position.

Enabling vs. Helping

Friends and family can play an instrumental role in enabling an addiction, or conversely, in helping a person to overcome their addiction.

Many people fear losing their loved one, so they do not establish proper boundaries regarding the addicted person. They may even give them money that is being used for the drugs. This enabling is doing far more harm than good. Any addicted person will tell you how brilliant they can be at exploiting their loved ones to finance their addiction. Brief tips on how to avoid enabling include not giving someone money, not allowing someone to spend time with you while they are actively using drugs, and not allowing someone to live with you while they are using. These can be very difficult things to do when we see a person suffering with the disease of addiction, but oftentimes they are what is ultimately most helpful.

On the other hand, people who have the support of friends and family are more likely to overcome their addiction. Part of the reason the 12-step programs like AA and NA have helped so many people is because there is such an emphasis on building relationships. In these relationships, addicted people can feel unconditional love and acceptance. Some ways you can be helpful to an addicted person are by buying them groceries, giving them transportation to work or to a doctor’s appointment, and letting them know that you love them unconditionally and are there for them if they ever need to talk. Tough love in the form of strict boundaries is often the best way to help. Encouraging them to get help and staging an intervention with other loved ones can also be effective.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an addiction to alcohol or drugs, please do not hesitate to reach out for help.