I would like it if people with alcohol/substance use disorder learned the family member’s experience too. We read everything we can to try and learn why people are the way they are, we go on CRAFT training and we try and be the best we can. We are often carers who are given little understanding or support.
Our experiences are so often neglected (I mean if you look at this forum there’s loads of people with substance use disorder talking about their experiences for a supposed charity dedicated to family members) and I would love it for policy makers, NHS, social care, our loved ones, to learn about us. How absolutely devastating it is. How people with lived experience of addiction could learn to listen to us and our pain. We forget who we are and become totally absorbed by the addiction just as much. Where the hell are our support groups that you could attend so you could understand our situation, our therapy? Why are we left behind to remember everything?
I understand you’re trying to help, and it’s empathetic enough, as well as it being useful for others. But I don’t know, it just got to me. Like I’m a bit fed up of being told to empathise with the loved one, when so often that isn’t reciprocated for so many of us. This forum doesn’t feel like a safe space at all and I joined thinking it would be.