Though your family members may be the most familiar people to you in your life, sometimes it’s surprising that brothers, sisters, parents, and even extended members like cousins, uncles, and in-laws, can miss out on seeing potentially destructive behaviors. Because sometimes familiarity breeds less observation, it can be important every once in a while to step back and think about certain behaviors analytically.
Specifically, you can watch out for signs of gambling addiction, alcoholism, poor budgeting, conspiracy theory obsession, and poor health conditions in family members. These may or may not be things that they’re trying to hide, but don’t let your closeness get in the way of calling them out!
Gambling Addiction
When a person suffers from gambling addiction, it can destroy their life in an incredibly short period of time. But this type of addiction doesn’t come from nowhere, and if you see small signs of it in your family members, you can get them help before the consequences become irreversible. Gambling addiction can be everything from betting on sports, to buying too many lottery tickets, to going to casinos and losing money that way. The important thing is to catch the addictive side of it before it’s too late.
Alcoholism
An extremely prevalent issue in today’s society is that lots of people are alcoholics. You might be an alcoholic. Someone in your family might be an alcoholic. You may be affected in your professional life by an alcoholic. And in many cases, there aren’t a lot of things that you can do. But particularly if you notice signs of alcoholism in close family members, you have more power than a stranger to try to get them help. Awareness is key though, and this is often a condition that people try to hide from the ones closest to them.
Poor Budgeting
We all have a few family members that aren’t that great with money. But in extreme cases, if a person close to us has no understanding of budgeting at all, and racks up crazy credit card debt to the point where they lose things like houses and cars, that becomes a larger problem. So, occasionally talk to family members who seem like they might be struggling financially and keep aware of where they are on the debt spectrum.
Conspiracy Theory Obsessions
In this strange time of the competition between fake and real news, there’s a certain personality type that is attracted to conspiracy theories. In many cases, it’s harmless, but if family members become obsessed with some of the strange ideas about health or politics in particular, there can be dangerous consequences.
Poor Health Conditions
If you notice a family member who is suffering from symptoms of poor health, perhaps on a physical or emotional level, be sure to suggest that they see a professional as soon as possible. Untreated illnesses can really bring an entire family unit down.
Originally posted on February 3, 2017 @ 9:27 am
