There are rehab and detox programs for them when they’re ready to change. The closer you are to a person needing help, the more likely you will enable them. This is because it’s harder to draw the line between acceptance and unacceptable behavior. Watch this TED Talk by Amy Scott, a speaker and communication coach, who shares how understanding different communication “dots” can help build—rather than break—relationships. According to the Act on the Organisation of Employment Services, being eligible for an unemployment benefit will continue to require having a customership with an employment authority.
This stage is often filled with guilt, frustration, and overwhelming stress, but it can also be the first step toward acknowledging the need for change and setting healthier boundaries. This often stems from a desire to keep the peace, diffuse tension, or avoid conflict, even though it continues unhealthy situations. This stage is often rooted in fear, guilt, or a desire to avoid conflict, and it prevents both the enabler and the other person from addressing the issue. Protecting enabling involves shielding the other person from the consequences of their actions. This might look like covering up their behaviors or lying to protect them. However, enablers can be victims of narcissistic abuse, or people can be enablers to individuals with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
Being the what does being an enabler mean enabler means you are enabling, or facilitating, your loved one’s continued substance abuse. You may not be doing so directly, such as supplying the drugs or alcohol, but indirectly, by protecting your loved one from the consequences of an addiction. Most people who struggle with addiction have to hit rock bottom before they will decide to seek treatment. Rock bottom may involve losing one’s job, home, driving privilege, custody of children, or relationships.
How to Stop Enabling Someone
No, usually enablers have a heightened sense of empathy, which is why it can be difficult for them to hold the other person accountable or allow them to face consequences. Parenting styles, like being overly protective or neglectful, and experiences of abuse can also lead someone to prioritize others’ needs over their own to avoid conflict or feel valued. The psychology behind enablers often comes from a mix of past experiences, traumas, family dynamics, and personality types. For example, imagine a parent whose adult child is struggling with substance use.
Why Do People Enable Bad Behavior?
An addiction specialist can help you turn well-meant actions into those that will actually help someone beat an addiction. You can get the information and education you need to initiate real, lasting change. Get your loved one into recovery with assistance from Intervention Helpline. And many people who enable others don’t realize they’re doing it. Understanding that people don’t choose to become addicted, and knowing why people can’t simply stop using drugs or alcohol will make it easier to provide positive support for overcoming the problem. Enablers will give addicts money, food, and a place to live despite continued substance use or any attempt to stop using drugs or alcohol.
Being an enabler does not mean you want your loved one to continue abusing drugs or alcohol. In fact, being the enabler means you care about your spouse, sibling, or adult child – you care so much that you want to make life easy for him or her. Unfortunately, this also means you are making it easy to stay addicted. When you enable someone, you prevent that person from hitting rock bottom. Instead of running out of money to feed an addiction, for example, your loved one will continue to afford bills, rent, and substance abuse because of your financial support. Instead of losing a job, your loved one will keep working because you called the employer and made an excuse for his or her irresponsible behavior.
Signs of Intelligent People, According to Psychology
It is difficult to compare an enabler and an abuser because they are two different things. However, enablers usually have good intentions that are misplaced, while abusers are typically trying to gain something over their victims. While parents should protect their children, overprotective parenting is excessive and often shields the child from learning from experiences and important life lessons.
What Happens If I Report a Drug Dealer?
- This can mean that they might keep the person from facing the consequences of their actions or resolve the other person’s problems themselves.
- Trying to manage your own life along with others’ starts to wear down your reserves.
- It can quickly turn into a draining and unhealthy relationship when loved ones try to provide support they aren’t qualified for.
- Acknowledge that you can support the person but cannot solve their problems.
For example, an adult sibling who grew up with a parent struggling with addiction might have learned to avoid conflict and “fix” problems to hold the family together. The young adult spends their money on drugs or alcohol, and when they can’t pay their rent, the parent steps in to cover it. This can also lead to a type of trauma bonding, where the enabler feels that they cannot stop enabling the person that they love without feeling that they abandoned them in their time of need. Over time, this behavior can lead to toxic relationships, where one person becomes dependent and less accountable, and the enabler feels trapped or taken advantage of. While it might feel like you’re helping in the moment, this behavior often makes it harder for the addicted person to change or grow. For example, a helper might assist a loved one in finding a therapist or attending support meetings if they’re struggling with mental health or substance use issues.
- An enabler in a relationship is someone who, often unknowingly, supports or allows unhealthy behaviors in their partner by excusing, covering up, or avoiding confrontation.
- So, you step in and fulfill those needs in order to avoid an argument or other consequence.
- Unfortunately, this also means you are making it easy to stay addicted.
How to Find Treatment for Addiction
Enabling can look like being a cover up for others, helping them avoid taking responsibility for their own actions, or feeling too nervous to set boundaries. If your help makes it easy for a loved one to continue with their problematic behavior, you may be enabling them. Establishing clear boundaries is crucial in stopping enabling behavior. Be clear about what you will and won’t tolerate, and communicate these boundaries with your loved one. Enablers may compensate for the other person’s shortcomings or failures by overcompensating in other areas.
People can continue to register as clients in the current way, either by visiting the lobby service of the service point or by using the digital e-service via Job Market Finland. Employment service experts will guide the service process from there. Personal clients are not required to take specific action related to the change. For example, employment plans agreed in 2024 that reach beyond the turn of the year will remain valid for 2025. We will inform our clients of the change in their responsible expert’s contact information and any possible changes in personnel as soon as possible. And give yourself permission to stop carrying what was never yours.
Encourage responsibility by letting others face the consequences of their actions. It doesn’t mean leaving them but letting them feel the natural results of their behaviour. When you no longer rescue them, they may come to understand the impact of your choices and step toward change.
What Causes Enabling Behavior?
You can pay for living expenses bills directly, if necessary, but do not give any cash money that could be used to buy alcohol or drugs. Over time, an enabler begins to resent the person or problem they have been supporting. Sometimes this causes a conflict, while other times they finally decide to stop giving support.
Often, enabling starts when a person tries to offer support to someone they care about because they know they are going through a difficult time. Someone with an enabler personality has a desire to help others, so much so that they would help them even when their behaviors can harm them. When the term enabler is used, it is usually referring to drug addiction or alcohol misuse. When they overstep their boundaries, make sure to give them proper consequences.
Stay positive and be there to show your continued love and support. If they violate any of the rules, there will be consequences and they will lose your support and possibly be out on their own. Tell your loved one that you are there to help in a positive way, but you will not be covering up for them anymore.
A person who engages in caretaking enabling provides constant care to another person in hopes that they can protect that person from harm. They might think, “It’s my job to protect him because we’re family,” but in reality, they’re shielding him from the consequences he needs to face to grow. Many enablers grow up in situations where they feel responsible for keeping the peace, solving problems, or making others happy. Unfortunately, most people don’t have the skillset to navigate things like addiction appropriately. However, it is often because they think that things will get worse if they aren’t there for their loved ones in the way they think they need them.


