When addiction takes control of someone’s life, it can destroy everything, including relationships with friends, loved ones, and daily encounters with people. When drug addiction takes hold of the brain’s pleasure center, many aspects required to maintain healthy relationships lay by the wayside. Some of these effects are listed below as follows:
1. Lies and deception
When someone begins to focus too much on getting and maintaining a drug habit, they begin to conceal information from family and friends about their daily lives. They may not be aware of the level of secrecy they are building at first. However, at a certain point, if and when they realize how bad the addiction has gotten, they will revert to guilt and shame. At this point, the addict becomes more secretive about their activities and the general state of being. The little lies that at first seem harmless turn into more significant deception. The deceptions and lies may lead the victim to lead a double life to cover up the use of drugs.
2. Loss of Trust
Secrecy, deception, and unexplained withdrawal from people and affairs will naturally rob relationships of trust. Loss of trust in relationships accompanies other feelings such as resentment, loss of respect, and disloyalty. In most cases, the drug addict frequently makes promises that they do not keep, and a general distrust toward the addict develops. If the victim is in rehabilitation, they can understand the process of convincing people to trust them again.
3. Abuse and Violence
Drug addiction affects a person’s mental state and how they treat friends and loved ones if a conflict occurs. Some drugs, such as cocaine, lead to mental health issues such, depression, paranoia, and anxiety. Signs of a heroin overdose include disorientation and loss of consciousness. Drug addicts may develop resentment and displaced anger, leading to aggressive behavior, turning little arguments into fights, and uncontrollable rage. Also, people in relationships with drug use can exhibit violent tendencies due to frustrations and abuse exposure.
4. Enabling Relationships
The love and care offered to someone in drug addiction can sometimes cloud friends and loved ones’ judgment. It is prevalent for people to try and help the drug addict but often in ways that enable the continued use of drugs.
These enabling behaviors include :
● Taking over responsibilities from the addicted person
● Taking the blame for someone else addiction
● Financing the addicted person for more drugs to avoid withdrawal symptoms
● Making excuses for drug use
5. Codependency in Relationships with drug Addicts
People in Codependent relationships with drug addicts may suffer from the effects of drug usage but enjoy the caretaker’s role or being needed by the addict. In most cases, they usually don’t realize that they aren’t helping as much but enjoy the feeling of being always needed by the addict and often convince themselves of a more significant course of self-sacrifice toward another person. The Codependent relationships offer the wrong help to the victim, characterized by extreme care and sometimes helping them obtain more drugs to avoid withdrawal.
Conclusion
Other people close to the victim, such as spouses, family members, family members, and significant others, can be enrolled for counseling for those who seek addiction treatment. The enrollment mainly helps repair broken relationships and help them heal and understand better ways to deal with dysfunctional behaviors.