A Contagious Smile Podcast · Victora Cuore; A Contagious Smile, Who Kicked First, Domestic Violence Survivor, Advocate, Motivational Coach, Special Needs, Abuse Support, Life Skill Classes, Special Needs Social Groups

How Caregivers Cope When A Loved One Won’t Admit An Addiction

·38 min·2 clips

Triangulation is when the addict pulls one family member to their side and shifts the heat onto others.

1. A Contagious Smile Podcast uses the episode topic of a loved one refusing to admit addiction to frame a caregiving problem the hosts say families face at home. 2. Victoria and Michael host together, and Michael adds personal alcohol history while Victoria brings medical and caregiving experience from Faith’s NICU care. 3. The episode asks what caregivers do when doctors, family pressure, and visible behavior still do not produce an admission of addiction. 4. Michael says he drank before work, drank at work, drove to the first bar, and kept drinking after getting home. 5. He uses that history to show how a person can believe they are functioning while still having a serious alcohol problem. 6. The hosts say the family member they are discussing is not Faith and not either of them, and that doctors have also stated there is a problem. 7. They describe repeated efforts to help that person enter recovery, including pressure from family and support from multiple doctors. 8. Michael explains rehab as a voluntary or court-ordered place for treatment, then contrasts it with a 1013, which he describes as involuntary transport for psychiatric evaluation. 9. Victoria says her work with special needs and domestic violence situations taught her how law enforcement, paramedics, and EMTs decide whether transport is safe. 10. The discussion returns to the problem of denial, with Michael asking how to convince someone that they are addicted when they still feel functional. 11. The hosts say caregivers may have the purest intentions, but those intentions do not matter much if the person does not want help. 12. Michael says some opioid users need more and more pills to get the same high, then do not see themselves as addicted. 13. The episode names drug-seeking behavior, including asking for pain medication and taking other people’s medications. 14. Victoria defines triangulation as the addict pulling one family member to their side and deflecting attention onto others. 15. The hosts connect that pattern to family conflict, narcissistic behavior, and the phrase that if it is not about them, "to hell with them." 16. Victoria says she copes by writing everything down, using colored tabs, and keeping a cheat book of what worked for Faith’s equipment and feeding issues. 17. Michael and Victoria use a conversational, back-and-forth format with interruptions, teasing, and abrupt topic shifts between addiction, caregiving, and family life. 18. The tone mixes practical problem-solving with personal stories from medical caregiving, addiction history, and home life with pets and family. 19. Listeners dealing with addiction in a family system and caregiving stress will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly edited, formal medical discussion may skip it.

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