How to Help Someone With Addiction Get Better Faster

If you're doing everything you can to help a loved one struggling with addiction and wishing the recovery process could just go faster—you’re not alone. The good news? There is a way to accelerate the journey from addiction to recovery—and it all starts with understanding their mindset and using proven strategies to shift it.

This post breaks down actionable techniques that help family members guide their loved ones through the hardest parts of recovery. These tips come from more than 20 years of experience in addiction counseling, and they work.

Why Denial Is the First Roadblock

This blog is the third part of our crash course on denial. If you haven’t seen the first two videos, they focus on how to get your loved one to face the truth—because change starts with acknowledgment.

Once they begin to recognize that everything isn’t fine, the discomfort can create an opening for change. But if you want to take things a step further...

How to Get Someone to Face the Truth About Their Addiction — Without Pushing Them Away

Trying to help someone you love see the truth about their addiction can feel like trying to get the perfect oven temperature for a Thanksgiving turkey — too cold and nothing happens, too hot and you burn the house down.

If you’ve ever tried to confront a loved one about their drinking, drug use, or destructive habits, you know exactly what I mean.

I’m Amber Hollingsworth, and here on Put The Shovel Down, we don’t just share success stories — we break down the how and why behind addiction and recovery so you can stay five steps ahead.

Let’s talk about how to get through to someone in denial without accidentally driving them deeper into it.

Why Most Attempts to “Wake Someone Up” Backfire

Here’s the thing: your instincts might be telling you to “just lay it all out.”
To tell them how they’re ruining your life, their life, the kids’ lives — and hope that reality will snap them out of it.

But gue...