2019 June Articles Archives

How Substance Abuse Affects Families

Drug addiction and substance abuse affect not only the addicted person themselves, but also their loved ones. Children, spouses, life-partners and parents all feel the impact of substance abuse.

While drug addicts need professional medical care and compassion to help them overcome their addictions, family members also need support and counselling to help them cope.

Denial and Enabling Doesn’t Help Addicts

Often, family members with the best of intentions can actually be doing more harm than good, without even realising it. Many addicts have close family members who are in denial about the problem, or who enable their addictive patterns by helping them to avoid the consequences.

Common unhealthy reactions to a loved one’s addiction include:

Denial: Refusing to admit that someone they love has an addiction problem, ignoring and avoiding the problem.
Co-dependence: An unhealthy attachment and involvement in a loved one’s life, a pattern of putting this other person’s needs before their own, and feelings of guilt when not taking care of the other person’s needs.
Enabling: Making excuses or defending the addict’s decisions or lying on their behalf to help them cover their tracks and avoid trouble.

While many people follow these behaviours because they believe they are helping or protecting the addict, they are unfortunately making the situation worse. The only way to truly help someone with an addiction is to face the facts and seek professional medical attention.

Advice for Family Members

If you have a relative or even a close friend with a substance abuse problem, here are some ways you can help yourself, and in turn, help them.

Learn the facts about addiction. Do some research and speak healthcare professionals. This will help you to separate the myths from the facts, and to better understand your loved one’s behaviour.
Don’t make yourself responsible for your loved one’s happiness or recovery. You can provide support, but they need to do the work to overcome their own addiction. You can’t do it for them.
Set healthy boundaries. Putting rules in place is part of loving someone without enabling them.
Attend family counselling sessions, where you and your loved one can discuss the issue in a safe, neutral environment with a professional.
Seek out support groups for families affected by addiction. Here you can connect with others who have been through similar experiences.

Once your loved one has admitted to having a problem and started the journey towards recovery, healing can begin. While they are going through this process, the best way to support them is to take care of your own emotional health and make sure you are getting the support you need as well.

Sources:

10 Tips to Help Family Members of those Struggling with Addiction Cope. Retrieved from: https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/family-friend-portal/tips-help-cope/#gref

Saving Water Saves Lives

Water is life, and saving water is absolutely essential. We use water every day for drinking, washing and cooking – often without thinking about where it comes from or whether it could possibly run out.

Water plays an important role in our economy. It is used in industries like farming and manufacturing, and is also needed to produce energy and electricity. We all have a responsibility to use water wisely, and make sure we’re doing our part to conserve it.

Water and Your Health

We all need water to stay healthy. We need it in order to digest our food, regulate our body temperature and flush out toxins. Many of the chemical reactions that keep us alive simply wouldn’t be possible without water!

Our bodies are mostly made up of water; you’d be amazed at just how much water is in your vital organs:

Brain: 73% water
Heart: 73% water
Lungs and liver: 83% water
Kidneys: 79% water
Skin: 64% water

As babies, our bodies are made up of about 75% water. The average adult man’s body is 60% water, and the average adult woman’s body is 55%. Most adults need about 2-3 litres of water a day to survive – that’s an average of 35ml of water per kg of body weight.

While water is abundant in our bodies, it is surprisingly rare on Earth, and this is why it’s so important to make sure we have enough to sustain life on our planet.

Water is Scarce

Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, but it’s much rarer than you think! It’s hard to believe just how rare fresh, drinkable water is on our “blue planet” – but the facts will surprise you.

Most of the world’s water is salt water found in the oceans. Just 3% of Earth’s water is fresh, and most of this 3% is inaccessible to us. Geological surveys have found the following:

Around 68% of the planet’s fresh water is found in ice caps and glaciers.
Around 30% is found in groundwater.
Only about 0.3% is found in the surface water of lakes and rivers.

Water and the Environment

We all know the basics of saving water. Be sure to fix leaks and drips, use low-flow showers and water-saving toilet cistern devices, and keep a water-wise garden. But there’s another big component of saving water – working to prevent water pollution.

Every piece of litter and plastic rubbish we discard finds its way into our planet’s waterways. Contaminated water can’t be used for drinking or washing. Preventing pollution is a big part of conserving our planet’s usable fresh water. Here are some ways you can make a difference:

Don’t flush foreign objects down the toilet.
Use more natural, greywater-safe cleaning detergents in your home.
Use natural pesticides and fertilisers in your garden.
Choose more reusable and recycled materials.
Don’t pour cooking oil, fat or grease down the kitchen sink. Put it in a jar or bowl, wait for it to harden and dispose of it as solid waste.
Don’t flush pills or medications down the drain. Use the recommended disposal methods on the packaging.
Avoid using single-use plastic straws, shopping bags and water bottles. These are huge causes of pollution.
Take action by actively participating in litter clean-ups and other local initiatives.

June 5 is World Environment Day, and it’s the perfect time to take action. Make a commitment to saving water at home and at work, and preventing water pollution.

Sources:

National Geographic: Earth’s Freshwater. Retrieved from: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/earths-fresh-water/

How Much of Your Body is Water? Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/how-much-of-your-body-is-water-609406

Clean water is life, health, food, leisure and energy. Retrieved from: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-environment-clean-water-is-life-health-food-leisure-and-energy/53926/

25 Amazing Ways to Prevent Water Pollution. Retrieved from: https://www.eartheclipse.com/pollution/amazing-ways-to-prevent-water-pollution.html