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You want to help. That's normal. But there's a huge difference between supporting someone's recovery and carrying it yourself — and that difference is what protects you both.
Covering the consequences of someone's use — paying their debts, lying for them, justifying them to others, doing things they should be doing themselves — has a name: codependency. It comes from love, but the effect is the opposite of what you're going for: it removes the one pressure that sometimes pushes someone to actually ask for help. The more the fall gets cushioned, the longer it takes for the moment of change to arrive.
One of the most common fears for family members is that setting a limit — no more money, no covering for an absence, no using in the house — is the same as no longer loving them. It's exactly the opposite: a clear limit is often the one thing that reconnects the person with the real consequences of their use, which is where something actually starts to shift.
Spending years watching over someone else's use takes a toll: anxiety, exhaustion, a constant sense of vigilance. Getting support for yourself — your own therapy, a family support group, someone to talk to about what this is doing to you — isn't selfish or a distraction from the "real" problem. It's actually what lets you keep supporting them without breaking yourself along the way.
A common approach in family therapy for addiction: you can't want someone's recovery more than they want it for themselves — but you can stop making it easier for them not to want it.
If you recognize yourself constantly covering, justifying or fixing the consequences of someone's use, that's the starting point — not to stop loving them, but to start supporting in a way that actually helps you both.
If there's a crisis or immediate risk to someone, this is not a substitute for emergency services — call 112 (Spain) or your local emergency number.
For partners, parents or children of someone with an addiction.