"How do I help my sister/uncle/friend with his/her addiction? How can I support them without 'enabling' them?"

I get this question all the time, and the answer isn't simple, so I did a solocast to give this subject the long answer it deserves. This podcast is for those of you who have a loved-one or a close friend who is struggling with an addiction. 

On this episode I cover:

• How to assess how ready someone is to change their behavior
• Ways to support someone who isn't yet contemplating quitting
• How to support someone who is ready to quit and make a change
• The balance of maintaining relationship while having boundaries
• Addiction as a physical, emotional, and spiritual illness
• Treating addiction from a "holistic" perspective
• The power of environment and social group on an addict
• The power of "hitting bottom" and what it means and how it works
• Interventions and sharing honestly about how someone's behavior affects you
• Stacking factors in an intervention to create a breakthrough for an addict
• Ego and its relationship to addiction
• Group recovery and the power of recovering together
• The power of 12 step programs - Fellowship + Structured Spiritual Program
• Objections to the 12 step program and classic smoke-screens
• The core of recovery: Community that supports recovery + spiritual principles
• Healing trauma as a path to healing the addiction
• Ayahuasca, Psilocybin, Ibogane and other psychedelics for treating addiction and healing trauma. 
• "The Environmental Cure" and changing location to start over
• How to leverage your relationship with someone to help them in crucial moments

Resources to explore: 
Dr. Gabor Mate's work

Dr. McCauley's presentation as addiction as a dis-ease