4 Tips For Helping A Relative That Has Just Completed Drug Rehab

If a close relative is just finishing up treatment at a drug recovery center and is going to live with you after getting out, you may wonder how to handle this situation to make sure he or she stays drug-free. While it is not your responsibility to make sure your adult relative never does drugs again, there are things you should know, realize, and do to make this person's chances of success greater. Here are four tips that may help you help your adult relative stay sober after getting professional treatment for a drug addiction.

Keep Your Home Drug-Free

While it may seem obvious that you should not have drugs in your home, opening your door to a recovering drug addict can involve much more than having drugs around your house. Depending on the severity of the addiction and the type of addiction, a person that is trying to stay clear from drugs can easily have relapses and may use normal, everyday items to do this. During a relapse, a drug addict could look for any of the following normal household items:

• Any types of over-the-counter medications
• Household cleaning products
• Rubbing alcohol or anything similar
• Alcoholic beverages
• Bath salts
• Spices and seasonings, such as nutmeg and vanilla extract

If you've never had a drug addiction, you may not think to eliminate these types of items from your home. For a recovering drug addict, anything that could help achieve a high might be game to try when he or she needs a quick fix.

Keep Stress Out Of Your Home

Stress is a common trigger for a drug addict, which means that he or she may have a higher chance of relapsing during stressful situations. You will not be able to control everything your relative does to avoid stress, but you can control the atmosphere in your home.

You may need to make changes in your life to achieve this, but you must find a way to keep as much stress out of the home as possible. While stress is a normal part of life, while your recovering addict relative lives with you, it will be necessary to keep this away from him or her while you live together.

Help Without Enabling

One of the hardest parts of helping a drug addict stay sober is knowing where to draw the line when it comes to helping the person. If you want this person to stay sober, you will need to understand the difference between helping and enabling. Chances are, this relative will need help, especially if he or she has been fighting this addiction for a long time, and helping him or her is a good thing.

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind as you try to help your relative is to ask yourself what he or she will learn from this. If you believe that it will help the person stay clean and sober, then help; however, if it will only make it easier for your relative to fall back into the addiction, then say no.

Encourage Ongoing Treatment

Many drug addicts can get and stay clean by going through professional drug treatment programs, but others will relapse. A drug addict has a much higher chance of staying sober after leaving a recovery center if he or she continues receiving ongoing treatment, such as talk therapy.

When your relative moves in with you, you could institute a policy that your relative is welcome to stay as long as he or she continues to get ongoing treatment for the addiction. This is a great way to encourage, support, and love your relative during this time, and you will be doing what is best for him or her.

If you currently have a relative with a drug addiction, you may want to convince him or her to get help at a recovery center. Recovery centers can help anyone break free from an addiction, and this is the most important thing for a person that is struggling with a drug addiction. Discover more about rehab and rehab centers here.