How To Help A Loved One

January 25, 2022

Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD discusses the effect of addiction on families and the value of getting professional help for a loved one.

Transcript

Hi, this is Dr. Bhatt, with a moment from Straight Talk With The Doc. One of the things that many family members or patients that suffer with substance use disorders speak with me about is how to get their family members help.

Often times it’s very difficult to set limits and boundaries with individuals who are actually in the throes of addiction. They’re often aggressive, they’re not in the right state of mind and it becomes very difficult to actually speak with them.

There’s opportunities to address these issues by getting a professional involved, obtaining an intervention, and often getting people involuntarily committed. These are difficult things that people have to go through. But one of the things that we have to know about addiction is that it’s not something that we can just speak out or talk it out of them. It’s important to realize addiction is a full-fledged medical condition. It is something that requires professional treatment. It is something that requires somebody to get medical help. It’s often very dangerous when trying to get off of substances, especially those that can cause significant life-threatening withdrawal.

The take home message is that if somebody is suffering with addiction and has a co-occurring mental or medical health condition it’s important to get them professional help, and that’s often found on AddictionCenter.com.