A parent or family member will often look at situations through "hope-colored" glasses seeing not what is actually there, but what that they want to see. This distortion of reality is due in part to the version of events that the addicted individual is providing, but also due to the parent or family member's desire to believe them, to be hopeful, and accentuate the positive.
An example of this distorted reality would be "Johnny is doing much better now; he's only using heroin a couple days a week." In this example, the family has created an acceptable amount of heroin use in order to see progress.
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Key ideas in this chapter
- Balancing emotional response with rational thinking
- The danger of hope-colored glasses in addiction
- Finding the right balance between heart and mind
- Learning to see reality despite emotional attachment
"Listen with your eyes, not your ears, because what you hear may lead you away from reality."