Dealing with a roommate addicted to drugs or alcohol is a challenge. If your roommate is also your best friend, or you have a tumultuous relationship from past indiscretions, that can affect the way you might handle the realization that your rooomate has a substance abuse problem.
If you hope to improve their roommate’s life, while relieving the tension in a home where a substance abuse problem runs the household, follow this basic guideline.
1. Have a conversation with your roommate
The first step in substance abuse cases is always to keep communication open. Very few addicts are willing to address their problem, and if they are, few will immediately accept help.
However, letting your roommate know that his or her behavior is affecting others is the first step toward self-recognition. Keep a level head, and speak gently; now is not the time to raise every complaint you have against your addicted roommate.
2. Discuss your needs
If you cannot live with your roommate any longer, you need to continue this conversation. An intervention may be the best solution, particularly if you are having a difficult time living in the apartment/house with the person.
Violent or heated confrontation is never productive in these circumstances, but you do need to be assertive with your roommate and explain that you will look for a new place, or that person has to move out, if the problem is addressed right away. If your roommate continues to ignore your concerns, it’s time to take action.
3. Take action to help yourself (and your roommate)
Bringing in the friends and family of your roommate is the next step. When pressured by their family and friends, your roommate will be forced to recognize the problem.
This may backfire — if your roommate does not want to be helped, it is impossible to force the person into treatment. However, a conversation about your concern for your roommate’s heath and mental well-being may succeed in coaxing him or her into treatment.
4. Head for rehab
If your roommate does choose to address the problem, the best solution might be a rehab program, where the person can get help, receive therapy for his or her condition, and meet others with similar problems. It also forces the addict to separate physically from the substance(s) of choice, and forces the person into sobriety — at least for the moment.
5. Remove yourself from the situation
If your roommate refuses to get help, and continues to abuse intoxicating substances despite the intervention of family and friends, the only other choice for you is to remove yourself from the addict’s life.
You have to preserve your own mental well-being, and reduce your own stress levels. This may be difficult, but extracting yourself from the vicinity of the problem is really the only solution if your roommate is resistant, combative, and refuses to seek treatment.
