As much as you may want to, you can’t force your son or husband to go to rehab. But as a close family member, you desperately want to do something to help your loved one get the help they need.

Chances are, you’ve asked yourself a dozen times what you can possibly say or do to get your son or husband to go to rehab. You may be feeling helpless as you wrack your brain to find the answer to this challenging question, so let’s take a deeper look.

What Can You Say or Do to Help Your Loved One Into Treatment?

Going back to this question, the answer isn’t as simple as you’d probably like. In many cases, there isn’t one specific thing you should say or a tried-and-true action to take to get your loved one into rehab. At the end of the day, your son or husband is his own person and is free to make his own decisions.
Accepting that fact should provide you with some relief because trying to control the uncontrollable just doesn’t work.

Remember: Someone struggling with drug addiction isn’t thinking logically or reasonably. They are under the influence of powerfully addictive substances and need help. The help they need is professional help.

This all being said, there is still plenty you can do to help engage your loved one in rehab. While no amount of incentivizing, bargaining, bribing, cajoling, shaming or logic will get your loved one into treatment, you can still guide them towards seeking the help they need.

5 Tips for Convincing Someone to Go to Rehab

If you start searching online for advice on dealing with substance addiction, a lot of it is from psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers or interventionists. Their collective advice can be summed up in two ways

1. That you should tell your son or husband that you will not continue to enable their addiction by supporting them financially or with the creature comforts of home, like a place to live and eat, and
2. That you will ONLY help them find and pay what you can afford or arrange through insurance for a drug rehabilitation program for them.

While it’s true that you should focus on putting an end to enabling your loved one’s addiction, there are several other things you can do:

• Educate Yourself About Addiction – By reading anything and everything you can get your hands on, you will start to really understand the disease of addiction and what your son or husband is going through. The more you can understand about how the disease works, the better you can help your loved one in their journey. Consider going to a local support group or speaking with a rehabilitation specialist to get more information and tips on how to talk to your loved one about his addiction.
• Find Rehabilitation Options – You don’t want to do all the work for your loved one but seeking out rehab options in the area can help jumpstart his recovery journey. You can show your loved one websites and other information about treatment programs like Spirit Mountain Recovery to help him realize treatment isn’t as intimidating as he may think it is. It’ll also help show him that you’re committed to supporting him during this time.
• Don’t Wait for Rock Bottom – Many people are led to believe that a person suffering from addiction has to hit rock bottom before they can truly get clean. This isn’t true. If you think your loved one needs help, it’s better to do something now, before it’s too late.
• Put Yourself in their Shoes – While it can seem almost impossible to understand what is going on in the mind of your loved one, you can show support in a way that you would want to be supported. Admit you don’t know everything. Admit you’re scared. Admit that addiction is a disease. Chances are your loved one didn’t want his life to get to this point, so do your best to empathize with the fear and pain he’s struggling with.
• Remove Fear from the Situation – If your loved one has tried rehab in the past or has heard horror stories, he is less likely to take the leap. Try to schedule a consultation or get him to talk to a specialist. Do what you can to help him understand he won’t be alone in the journey and there is life on the other side.
• Stage an Intervention – Interventions can be one of the most effective tools in a family member’s pocket when it comes to convincing a loved one to enter rehab. Include all of the important people in your loved one’s life and make sure a professional is there to facilitate and manage the experience.

Don’t let your loved one’s addiction debilitate you. While you can’t force someone to seek treatment, you can take steps to help your son or husband come to the decision to enter rehab on his own.

Find Support at Spirit Mountain Recovery Center

Spirit Mountain Recovery is located in the beautiful Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah. We offer upscale drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs and it is our belief that substance addictions are multi-phasic disorders of the mind, body and spirit.

Our remarkable and fun therapies are designed to help our clients get the adequate rest, nutrition and exercise they need to reorient their life goals and start living a fulfilling life again. Contact us today to speak to an admissions counselor about getting your loved one the treatment and care he deserves.