Loving Someone with an Addiction

Featuring expert commentary from Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery executive director Phillip Valentine (who has logged 25 years of sobriety) and Boston Medical Center addiction psychiatrist Dr. Domenic Ciraulo, this guidance program explores the heartbreaking and traumatic effects of addiction on family members. Loving Someone with an Addiction looks at the chronic nature of addiction (which can alter brain chemistry); explores the hopelessness and stress that addiction can place on family and friends; and notes that shame and stigma can keep an addict from getting help. Interweaving explanatory graphics with interviews of addicts and loved ones, the film provides tips on how to avoid being an enabler (“You can love an addict to death”) and instead learn to set boundaries, as well as suggestions about Al-Anon, working with primary care physicians, and celebrating “small victories.” Even with some repetition in the personal stories and a religious overtone, the overall content here is strong. Recommended. Aud: P. (J. Williams-Wood)