3 Mistakes Families Make When Helping Someone With Addiction
What if the things you’re doing out of love are actually making your loved one’s addiction worse? Discover six essential principles for supporting someone struggling with addiction, including how to stop enabling, set healthy boundaries, and find hope through faith—even when recovery seems impossible.
Loving someone who struggles with addiction can leave you feeling helpless, exhausted, and afraid. But how do you support someone you love without unintentionally enabling their addiction—or losing yourself in the process?
After years of struggling with substance abuse and repeatedly attempting to get clean, Ray, founder of Recovery Matters in Wexford, Pennsylvania, is approaching 12 years of sobriety. Today, he uses his experience and Christian faith to help others find freedom from addiction.
In this powerful conversation with Dan Smith on Partners in Ministry, Ray shares practical, biblical guidance for families and friends navigating the challenges of addiction and recovery.
You’ll discover:
– Three common mistakes loved ones make: enabling, trying to fix someone, and codependency.
– Three essential ways to help: encouraging accountability, allowing time for recovery, and understanding the difference between being responsible to someone and responsible for them.
– How to establish healthy boundaries without abandoning someone you love.
– Why family members need healing and support, too.
– How faith, prayer, and a relationship with Jesus Christ provide strength through uncertainty.
Ray also shares his personal journey from repeated relapse and hopelessness to lasting recovery, along with his vision for expanding Christian support to families affected by addiction.
Whether you’re a parent, spouse, friend, ministry leader, or someone walking alongside a person in recovery, this conversation offers practical encouragement and a powerful reminder that change is possible.
Recorded on October 13, 2026. Originally published on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
Recovery Matters Care Ministry:
— Learn More at: https://northway.org/small-group-details/?id=15341
– Make a Donation: https://bit.ly/JWQF_RMDonation
— Contact Ray:
— — by Email: jpdesign989@gmail.com
— — by Phone: (515) 210-6941
— Social Media:
— — Facebook: https://facebook.com/raiserecovery1
— — Facebook Private Group: https://facebook.com/groups/raiserecovery
— — YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@raiserecovery
The Quakerdale Foundation:
— Learn More at: http://QuakerdaleFoundation.org
— Invest in Our Mission: https://bit.ly/JWQF_Give
— Subscribe to Our Newsletter: https://bit.ly/JWQF_Subscribe
— Send an Email: DSmith@Quakerdale-Foundation.org
— Social Media
— — Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quakerdaleofiowa
— — LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/522757/
— — JWQF YouTube Channel: https://YouTube.com/@jwqfvlogs4266
Listen on Spotify Podcasts: https://bit.ly/JWQF_SpotifyPodcast
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(S6, E29)
