Watching someone you care for suffer from drug addiction can be one of the most difficult struggles a person can experience and knowing what steps to take can be a challenge.

In order to recognize a drug addiction there are certain symptoms that you can look for.

“Always go with your gut. You may notice a change in friends, isolation, not taking care of themselves as well as they should. Their cleanliness becomes an issue. You also might notice a lot of secrecy and irritability,” said Cary Quashen, founder of ACTION Family Counseling.

If you determine that someone you care for is in fact struggling with a drug addiction the first step is to seek help for yourself.

Related: Drug Overdoses Become The Leading Cause Of Accidental Death In The U.S.

“Anyone with an addict in their home should get to an Al-Anon meeting and get help for themselves,” said Quashen. “The only person we can control in this world is ourselves. If you are not ok, you can’t help anyone else.”

Quashen said that a lot of family members and loved ones end up enabling the addict.

“An addict is addicted to whatever drug they are using. On the other hand, a mother, father, brother, sister, wife, husband etc., is addicted to the addict. They need to take care of themselves and then they can take care of the addict,” said Quashen.

Bringing the addiction to the surface and shining a light on the problem is an important step.

Related: Prescription Drug Addicts Turn To Heroin As Substitute

“Number one is everyone needs to be out of denial. There is always intervention. I believe all interventions are successful even if the addict doesn’t go into treatment. Secrets keep people sick but when the secret is out thing get better,” said Quashen.

Contrary to popular belief, an addict does not necessarily need to hit “rock bottom” in order to get better, according to Quashen.

“I believe there are different kinds of bottoms. We can help someone to hit bottom with the right intervention, by not enabling them. By letting them fend for themselves,” Quashen said.

“Addicts and alcoholics don’t change until they absolutely have to. When they have no choice. when the consequences of what they doing outweigh whatever fun they think they are having.”

And when it comes to getting the addict get treatment it’s imperative to look in the right places.

Always seek professional advice. Dont try to do it by yourself. There are counselors who are trained YOu want to go to someone that knows how to deal with addiction,” Quashen said.

About Action Family Counseling

Action Family Counseling has drug and alcohol residential treatment locations in Santa Clarita, Piru, and Bakersfield; Intensive Drug and Alcohol Outpatient in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Ventura, Pasadena, and Bakersfield, Action Family Counseling is here to help you.

Action Family Counseling’s primary goals are to maintain abstinence, stabilize co-occurring illnesses, and increase quality of life. We support and reinforce change in behavior patterns so that adolescents and adults, or clients and their families can fully indoctrinate the philosophies and principles needed to remain abstinent and stabilized for life.

Action Family Counseling accomplishes this by providing an effective treatment approach developed by the Department of Health and Human Services that includes a multi-disciplinarian personalized approach by a treatment team. Once a patient is identified, we provide an initial screening and assessment, which allows us to properly diagnose and place patients in the appropriate treatment setting.

Once a patient completes our intake process to our residential program he or she receives 24-hour crisis management, individual counseling, group therapy, family education and counseling, treatment planning, routine and random toxicology screening, pharmacotherapy and medication management, education about Alcohol and Other Drugs and mental health issues, self-help and support group orientation, case management services, and discharge service planning with a transitional service plan to our Intensive Outpatient treatment program to ensure a continuum of care.