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Do you feel held hostage by the rollercoaster of a loved one's addiction?

What is the crucial difference between helping someone and enabling their destructive behavior?

Is it possible to stop the chaos and help the entire family heal, even if the addict isn't ready to change?

Join Dr. Adriana Popescu in another empowering episode of Kaleidoscope of Possibilities: Alternative Perspectives on Mental Health, where she explores the complex dynamics of addiction within the family system. In this episode, Dr. Adriana sits down with Candace Plattor, an addiction therapist and author who specializes in helping families stop enabling their loved ones.

They discuss the often-overlooked reality that addiction is a family disease, exploring how "loved ones" can inadvertently keep the addict sick through enabling behaviors. Candace shares her personal journey of recovery and offers a transformative roadmap for families to establish boundaries, prioritize their own self-care, and ultimately "raise the bottom" for the addict in their lives.

In this episode:

A Journey of Recovery: Candace shares her personal story of overcoming 15 years of opioid addiction and celebrating over 36 years of sobriety.

Addiction Defined: Understanding addiction not just as a substance issue, but as a displacement of anxiety and a symptom of underlying trauma.

Helping vs. Enabling: A clear, game-changing definition of the difference between truly helping a loved one and enabling their addiction.

The Family System: Why treating the addict in isolation rarely works and the importance of healing the entire family unit.

Raising the Bottom: Debunking the myth that you have to wait for an addict to hit "rock bottom" and learning how to raise that bottom sooner.

Love with Boundaries: Practical steps for loved ones to regain their sanity, stop being held hostage, and love without losing themselves.

Holistic Healing: The role of hypnotherapy and addressing the root cause of the "hole in the soul.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Candace’s Website: LoveWithBoundaries.com

Book: Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Top 10 Survival Tips for Loving Someone with an Addiction by Candace Plattor: https://lovewithboundaries.com/loving-an-addict-loving-yourself-3/

Free 3-Minute Quiz: Available on Candace’s website to see if you are an enabler.

Complimentary Strategic Consultation: A free 30-minute call for families.

About Candace:
Candace Plattor, author of Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Top 10 Survival Tips for Loving Someone with an Addiction and Loving an Addict, Loving Yourself: The Workbook, knows from personal experience what it means to be an addict. Within a year of being diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 1973, she found herself in the throes of prescription drug addiction.

Her Crohn’s Disease diagnosis came at a time when the medical community had a very limited understanding of the disease and how to treat it. As a result, the treatment included some very addictive medications such as Valium, Demerol, Codeine and Oxycontin, which she took faithfully for a number of years. Additionally, she discovered that marijuana took away a lot of her physical pain and helped her escape from feelings of powerlessness, hopelessness, and isolation. In no time at all, she became a daily pot smoker and had one more addiction to deal with. And when she ran out of pot, she abused alcohol.

After more than 15 years of abusing substances, she "reached bottom" in 1987. Thus began her journey of recovery and self-discovery. In her books, Candace draws from her experience as an addict, as well as from the stories of those she continues to help in her practice, to uncover the reality of loving someone with an addiction. All too often, people with an addicted loved one in their lives will neglect themselves in an attempt to "help."

But, as she points out in her books, this is a lose-lose situation that doesn’t help the addict at all. Instead, loved ones must make their own needs a priority and learn to focus on their own self-care.

“Helping is doing something for someone that they are not capable of doing for themselves. Enabling is doing for someone things that they could and should be doing for themselves.” – Candace

Would you like to continue this conversation and connect with other people who are interested in exploring these topics? Please join us on our Facebook group! (https://www.facebook.com/groups/kaleidoscopeofpossibilitiespodcast/)

About your host:

Dr. Adriana Popescu is a clinical psychologist, addiction and trauma specialist, author, speaker and empowerment coach who is based in San Francisco, California and practices worldwide. She is the author of the book, What If You're Not As F***ed Up As You Think You Are?

For more information on Dr. Adriana, her sessions and classes, please visit: https://adrianapopescu.org/

To find the book please visit: https://whatifyourenot.com/

To learn about her trauma treatment center Firebird Healing, please visit the website: https://www.firebird-healing.com/

You can also follow her on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrAdrianaPopescu/

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriana-popescu-ph-d-03793

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Medium: https://medium.com/@dradrianapopescu

Disclaimer: This podcast represents the opinions of Dr. Adriana Popescu and her guests. The content expressed therein should not be taken as psychological or medical advice. The content here is for informational or entertainment purposes only. Please consult your healthcare professional for any medical or treatment questions.

This website or podcast is not to be used in any legal capacity whatsoever, including but not limited to establishing “standard of care” in any legal sense or as a basis for legal proceedings or expert witness testimony. Listening, reading, emailing, or interacting on social media with our content in no way establishes a client-therapist relationship.