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Confronting An Addict/Alcoholic - Addiction Counselor Explains

15 Jul 2023 · 0 min

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0:21

A short YouTube excerpt (Amber Hollingsworth, July 15, 2023) in which an addiction counselor explains how to approach denial in people with substance use problems. She advises family members to first identify what the person is denying and cautions against telling someone who does not recognize a problem to "get help," because repeating that claim damages the family member's credibility (metaphor: filing bankruptcy each time).

When you try and get someone out of denial, you have to figure out first, what are they in denial about? And what a lot of family members do that kind of mess it up is they. They're like, you need to get help. You need to go, like, to get an assessment or whatever. And you're saying that to a person who doesn't even think they have a problem. And every time you do it, you destroy your credibility. Like, think of it if it was like, your credit history, like, your financial credit. It's like you're filing bankruptcy every single time you do that, so don't do it.