Tough Love

Love: The one word describes the feelings we have for our ‘loved’ ones. It includes taking care of them, trusting them, helping them, being happy with their happiness, being with them when they are sad: in essence, fulfilling a relationship, a bond with them.

This disease we deal with, Addiction or mental illness, the first thing it does is that it shatters this bond. I use ‘shatter’ for a reason because ‘break’ is too weak a word to describe what happens. Our houses become empty of the timeliness feeling; when we want to help our addict or patient, we end up doing harm, in lots of ways. In those cases, normal love doesn’t work. The reason is obvious, The part of the body that processes reality, and thus love, is in disorder, is in disease.

So, if we are left with a patient with whom we can’t sustain a love bond, how do we take care of them?

The answer is ‘Tough Love’. Tough Love is a skill taught in a recovery program which allows us to form a connection with the patient and the patient’s brain separately. What was on recipient, is now two: The mind and the brain. The mind is what we always talk to and then the mind conveys information to the brain. In our disease, the mind loses this management of the brain. The task of tough love is to help the mind manage the brain better.

So, How to do tough love? 

First, be assertive and proactive. Do not be reactive. Do not enable or provoke. When it is time to say no, speak it with love. In a short sentence, and that’s it.

And that’s that. That’s all this skill is about. It looks easy to read but is hard to do. But hard work builds improvement!

Finding Ways to Cure Your Loved Ones

Now what to do when our loved one is suffering from substance abuse disorder? To deal with this disease, there is a need to understand the cause and by expert mental health specialists, it is stated that addiction and substance abuse is mental illness. Dr. JPS Bhatia – Well specialized psychiatrist for mental health issues and best to treat addiction in people at their renowned Nasha Mukti Kendra in Amritsar. 

Doctors only suggest the patients and their family to visit the rehab centers as soon as possible to cure this disease. It cannot be healed itself.  It needs a professional help from concerned treatment centers. Subscribe to our Youtube Channel The Hermitage Rehab for more videos on mental health and addiction treatment.