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An addiction is the overuse of something such as drugs for one’s pleasure, to a point where it becomes a
habit that is difficult to quit. Addiction can affect the individual person with the disorder in a number of
ways; they may experience poor work and academic performance since they use of drugs inhibits
thinking (Bell et al. 2014) . Moreover, they may experience relationship problem; this is because the
sudden mood swings could results poor relationship with the addict’s family member. In the long term
drug addiction can lead to depression, as the over consumption of drugs trigger loneliness, sadness and
hopelessness.
Family members may really get affected when they have a member of their family getting addicted to
drugs. For example, children who grow up seeing their parents battling with drug addiction may suffer
from distressing emotions causing delays in natural development of the child. Moreover, they may
experience aggressive behavior form their parents who are addicted to drugs and may end up adopting
this behavior as they grow. Besides, when one of the spouse in a marriage is addicted to drugs, the
other may feel a financial strain in providing for the rest of the family and this may result to early divorce
(Orford et al.2010).
Motivational interviewing is a type of counselling that helps individual who are suffering form addiction
by motivating them to change their destructive behavior (Smedslund et al. 2011) . Social workers use
this method by being empathetically to the addicts and listening to what they want in order to find ways
to help them with their addiction. The addicts find in themselves reason to quit abusing drugs. Families
of the addict are also helped to understand the reason behind their loved one’s addiction and ways in
which they can help them quit drugs. The family is also involved in developing a set of steps they could
use to help their family member cope with the addiction.