The Effects of Depressants

As a person's drug abuse gets worse, the lives of his or her family and friends are negatively affected. It's difficult to watch someone you love and care about be hurt by drugs. A friend or family member may become an enabler. An enabler is someone who unknowingly supports the addict's habit.

For example, a wife may call in sick for her hungover husband because she's afraid he'll lose his job. A boyfriend may do his girlfriend's homework when she misses school, so she won't fail the class. A mother may give her child money, even though she knows the child uses it to buy drugs. This kind of codependent behavior by family members and friends prevents the addict from seeing how destructive his or her behavior really is.

Enablers try to help by controlling the addict's behavior, and become obsessed with trying to get the addict to stop abusing drugs. But, by trying to control the addict's behavior, the enabler allows the abuse to continue. Only an addict can admit to having the disease. Only an addict can make the decision to stop using. And only after facing the negative consequences of drug use will he or she realize the problem. The longer an enabler is involved, the longer it takes for the addict to reach this realization.