How Does Addiction Affect Families

How Does Addiction Affect Families?

To better understand drug addiction you need to know the effects it has on you, your family and how it affects your family financially. Families who find themselves in this situation understand the devastating effects that it has on their family structure. Drug addiction is lethal and costly in many different ways. What image comes to mind when you think of a drug addict? Someone smoking weed or shooting heroin? A typical drug abuser could easily be your next-door neighbor, the baby sitter you hired to watch your kids, or the cashier you talk to at the store. That's because drug abusers try to hide their addictions the best they can.

The most obvious effect is on the drug abuser. They have to keep secrets from their family. They’ll lie, steal, become unreliable, forgetful and they put your job at risk. They may become jealous of their friends or people in their family. They may get emotional and violent. The most obvious effect is your health. Drugs and alcohol with effect you dramatically.

When the abuser chooses to take drugs they hurt their friends family and co-workers. They will often distance themselves from the people that are close to them. Family and friends may blame themselves for the abuser’s problem. They may question themselves about various things. Why? Did I drive them to this? Can I stop it? They often drive themselves crazy worrying about the abuser. When on drugs, the abuser can disappear for days at a time. That can be hard on their family. Their wife and kids will worry about them, or if a kid goes missing because of drugs their parents will worry and and extreme cases the police can be called. They become violent and can hurt the people around them. They can hurt their family members friends or innocent civilians. They don’t know their doing anything wrong because of the drugs.