Why People With Addiction Play the Victim — and How Family Can Respond
By the time addiction has become truly problematic, a person will come up with a bunch sophisticated defense mechanisms to continue feeding his/her addiction. One of these defense mechanisms is playing the victim role.
Why do people with addiction play the victim?
Knowingly playing the victim role helps a person with addiction to control and influence the thoughts and feelings of others, most commonly parents and spouses. A person with addiction hardly copes with their actions — they’re ashamed or afraid to acknowledge this and seek help — so they justifies their actions as a way of controlling the situation.
