Addiction is a perversion of intuition. It is a perversion of a person’s very desire. It corrupts vital portions of their being. Of their soul. It trespasses upon things that are naturally sacred for any thinking creature, let alone a human. An addict feels this even if they do not understand it, and it breaks them in ways that may never be mended.
Convenient trait of an addict, though: they’ll never challenge a controlling power. Just in case you come to the conclusion that these behaviors are encouraged more than deterred by society. “If you don’t grow up in the way we want you to, you’ll go under stress and eventually be introduced to drugs that make that stress go away. Any way, we own you.”
But that doesn’t matter for your family friend, does it? Well, as an alcoholic, (who is drunk right now,) I can say the best thing to do is give them a new life. Give them new everything. Long enough to detox their body, long enough to detox their brain, long enough to detox their personality. Anything short of that, strict medical help may succeed, but there is no purely medical cure to severe addiction. Addiction is life, perhaps your family member is lost. What can you really do to help? (emotional drunk, disregard negativity)