Don't Enable--Encourage.
This is the oldest and most often mentioned fact about helping a drug addict, because it is completely true.
The world brings the consequences of drug abuse and addiction home to the drug user pretty quickly.
To shield them from those consequences is not going to help them quit drugs, and there are more penalties coming down the pike.
Protecting the user from these is a never ending battle which takes its toll on everyone, including the enabler and the enabler's bank account.
Addiction is painful and any person will naturally seek to avoid pain.
But while shielding a son or daughter from pain is a natural urge for any parent, doing so in the case of drug addiction creates a false sense of safety which can lead to even more risky drug behavior in the future.
When the consequences of drug abuse are lessened, the addict is exposed to even more dangerous situations with possibly deadly outcomes.
Instead, take a definite, steadfast stand against drug abuse and hold your ground, never wavering.
Coax the user to seek treatment and help them to see that there are others who care about them and also want to see them cured.
Don't Be a Sympathizer--Be a Guide.
Sympathy should really be listed as one of the seven deadly sins.
Although it is good to understand the troubles of another-- to sympathize means to be in agreement with their actions and emotions.
Sympathy means to share in their distress or sorrow.
The word also means to pity.
To sit down and cry with a person who is experiencing severe grief is not helping them to overcome their problems, it tells them that they're right.
It says that crying is the solution.
When we sympathize we don't help the troubled person to rise up, we go down there with him or her and join them in their misery.
Many addicts complain about meeting in which drug abusers sit around and talk about getting high, laugh at the experiences they share of being drunk or stoned and then leave the meetings with powerful urges to go out and use drugs.