Stereotypes arise from frequently observed correlations between a person and a situation or a person and another person. Stereotypes can be extremely generic, such as wealthy people being greedy, or attractive, surgically enhanced females being dimwitted. Stereotypes can also be specific to one person, where the friends and family members of one individual come to associate certain behavior or characteristics with them. This can be anything from moods to reactions to a specific situation where the individual had a particularly strong emotion. Often, stereotypes given by family can be beneficial, such as when intelligent children are encouraged by their family expectations and good will toward their intellectual development. Unfortunately, the same principal can be applied with a negative connotation, where an alcoholic is discouraged from quitting their self destructive behavior by the long-term expectations and hopelessness of their family members. What can be done about this?
The decision to quit an addictive and harmful behavior is something which has to come from the inside the individual. It cannot be pushed upon them from anyone else, and no one else can continue and finish/complete the process besides the individual in question. For this reason, hopelessness regarding a family member’s addiction can be just as harmful to all parties involved as perpetually let down hope. Expectations of outsiders cannot exist, because it means that the addict is being influenced externally. Their motivation for change can only come internally, and no amount of external influence will change that, even if others wish to take credit for the success of their friend.
In the workplace, coworkers can also be influential, especially if the addict in question is especially prone to weakness regarding the opinions of others. If they set too much store by the opinions of outsiders, then they are more likely to continue the self destructive practices which they have been “labeled” as always using.
Mediscreen provides onsite drug and alcohol testing for businesses all over Australia. For more information about how employee drug testing can aid your company and ensure the safety of your assets, call us today: (+61) 1300 79 70 40.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02791072.1987.10472397