Tina’s Story: Loving Someone Through Addiction Without Losing Yourself
When Someone You Love Is Struggling
Tina’s dream is simple: she wants her son to have a meaningful, balanced life. She has also come close to losing him more times than she can count, and she describes loving someone through addiction the way it actually feels.
“It’s like someone with an addiction is in a whirlpool of water,” she says, “and as family members, when we go to try to help them, they just suck us in with them.”
The Turning Point
For a long time, Tina put everyone else first. “You put yourself on the back burner because these other things are more pressing,” she says. “Well, I liked to help so much I was off the stove. I wasn’t even on the back burner.”
What changed was the oxygen mask rule — the reminder that you have to secure your own before you can help anyone else. “I still want to help others, but no longer in a way that I get uncentered and drained.”
Finding Support and Healing
Through support groups and community, Tina found compassion, understanding, and a place to talk about all of it. Her message to other families: “Recognize when you’re in a lot of pain and confused — and trust that you can get help. If you don’t find the right help, keep looking. It’s out there. There are many people that care.”
Resources for Families & Recovery
Click here to find family resources and support.
Click here to find resources and support.
Click here to learn more about getting and using Narcan.
