coworkers, family, and society at large. All these people and systems may give this person bad help, and the addict thinks they are ok. When the enablers bow out, the addict may get really upset because they are used to the protection. Tey could try intimidation tactics or pay the victim to induce people to feel sorry for them. Tis is why education, communication, and documentation are so very important. We all have to be on the same team if we want to help the addict and have a safe workplace. As a society and as individuals we make
allowances for sick people as a natural course of action, but at the same time we have to remember one thing. Just because they are sick doesn’t mean they don’t have a personal responsibility to try to help themselves. Anyone who has a sickness, mental or physical, needs to do certain things to maximize their healing. Someone who has cancer and wants to get well learns what they have to do for progress can be difficult. Someone with diabetes has a responsibility to eat correctly and take their medication. A person who wants to recover from addiction has a responsibility to take charge of their recovery, but if their illness is being covered up and behavior accepted, they can’t even reach the point where they see their own addiction.
What Can We Do About It? Adopt the philosophy of giving a hand-up as opposed to giving a hand-out. What I mean is that we should question anything we do for someone to see if it is helping them up or helping them stay stuck in the same place. My friend who takes his son to the drug dealer and gives him money could instead drive him to treatment and give him some money while he is in treatment. Both actions involve a drive and money, but both produce different results. See the difference? We can give employees time off for
counseling. We can offer phone numbers, give people rides to treatment, provide literature or information about specific problems. Tese are all helpful ways of giving
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assistance. I call this good help in my book. Lending money to someone to pay a cell phone bill when they spent their money on alcohol is bad help. Allowing someone to face the consequence of not paying their cell phone bill is good help. Any help that assists an addict to evade their own responsibilities is bad help. Ask yourself, “Is what I am doing assisting the addict to change for the beter, or is it helping them to evade their own responsibilities and stay sick?” Learn about the basics of addiction and
recovery. Tere are many fine resources from which you can get educated on addiction. You are also able to go to open recovery groups to learn and hear from recovered addicts. Realize that everyone does not want help for their addiction, and some people are not ready to recover at this time. You cannot force someone to recover who refuses to. Tat does mean, though, that the addiction will probably get worse over time. Be aware of that. Tere is a story in my book about a cement truck driver who was enabled to continue with his addiction while at work. He went on to kill a family of five in a fatal truck accident. In addition to these senseless deaths, his company was sued for lack of due diligence in the way they handled this employee. I am sure there were some very nervous people working there at the time, especially when they had to go to court to try and defend their lack of appropriate action. We can’t monitor what people do off
work, but it is our responsibility to keep the workplace safe. Trough proper supervision and follow-up alcohol and drug testing, we are doing what we can. We are seting boundaries for all workers, not just the people with addiction problems. We can’t demand that someone change their lifestyle, but we can demand that the employee follows the policies of the workplace. If this forces someone to look at themselves, so much the beter. Tere are consequences built into the process. I have found from experience that a consequence that threatens one’s livelihood is even more helpful to the addict than family pressures.
We have to realize that those with
addiction issues are not “normal” individuals. Tey are sick. Sickness is the only way to explain why a person would lie about something they consider the solution to their problems and deny the bad symptoms resulting from their perceived solution. Recovery rates for addiction are not high, but they are higher where there is a good process in place and people don’t enable. Tat should be our goal in our workplaces, an ever-improving process. If you are deeply affected by someone
else’s substance abuse, then go to some Al-Anon meetings. You can get support and education from others who are in the same or similar situation. Tey understand. It is easy to be manipulated by an addict. Safety is our goal here, not making the
person change. Change is optional, but hoped for. Consequences allow the person to see that they need to change, so allow consequences to happen . . . don’t prevent them. Don’t allow something that should be reported to be swept under the carpet. Say something about it. We all are responsible for safety. ❚
Nicholas Barry has been working in various aspects of the addiction field since 1985, most notably in the workplace. He is an Interna- tionally Certified Alcohol and
Drug Counsellor (ICADC), a Substance Abuse Professional (SAP), and has a master’s degree in social work (MSW). He has served on the board of the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Federation and has been a media commentator on addiction issues. His new book, Addiction, Substance Abuse and the Workplace, lays out a straightforward and systematic approach to dealing with addiction and substance abuse in the workplace. Ignoring the problem allows them to become worse, thereby affecting oth- ers—sometimes drastically. Dealing with them helps with safety, and the person with the ad- diction will get the chance to take responsibility for themselves and get better.
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