Grief and Your Loved One's Addiction: Let's talk about what's really going on
Over the past year, we’ve seen an uptick in mental health issues as a result of Covid-19. The very things that have helped to stop the spread of this deadly illness, such as social distancing and sheltering in place, are the very things that breed ongoing mental health issues, a major one of those being addiction and substance abuse disorders. Numerous articles have been published in the news about the rise in overdoses over the past year and the need to be more aware of how this pandemic is affecting those who struggle with substance use disorders. For those of us that have loved ones who struggle with addiction, we’ve seen the effects of the pandemic first-hand and know the heartache associated with seeing someone we love suffer with this disease.
In watching this struggle from the sidelines, many of us may be experiencing an emotion we don’t commonly associate with addiction: grief. Grief is typically associated with loss of a person, place, or thing (like a relationship). We don’t often think of grief as it relates to the loss of an idea, concept or dream. For those of us who have an addicted loved one, we may have to grieve the idea of who we thought this person was or how we thought their lives, or our lives with them, would turn out to be. Grief is an emotion that we may want to avoid, as it can feel overwhelming and all-consuming but just like any other emotion, if we let it in, we can let it out. Therefore, in an effort to heal ourselves while coping with a loved one’s addiction, we need to make space for our grief and realize that the grieving process is non-linear. It may ebb and flow, and it may be triggered by something external, such as a post on social media or an innocent comment made by a friend or family member.
The Rising Strong group for families of addicted loved ones we are hosting at Harper Therapy is structured to help participants build skills to work through grief and to have a safe and supportive community in which to do so. Please call (813) 434-3639 to learn more and register!
