Addiction as a Family Disease
There is no question that drug addiction affects families in a multitude of ways — financially, emotionally and functionally. If you are part of a family in which someone is addicted to drugs, you know the feelings that can arise when dealing with this sensitive issue. There are so many competing emotions and questions that arise that you may end up feeling utterly helpless.
These questions are common and expected. Enabling and co-dependency are big problems when it comes to addiction and family. Sometimes families become almost dependent on the problem and begin to work around it, fixing problems under the direction of the disease. This can cause enabling, which means directly or indirectly helping the addict to keep using. You need to be able to recognize this behavior to be able to free yourself from it.
The Impact of Addiction on Families.
The most common impact of addiction on families is that the family may revolve around the substance abuse, just as the addict revolves the substance. You can be overcome by worry, guilt, depression, anger and helplessness. In many instances, the same emotions of the addict are shared throughout the family. Other family members may feel abandoned because of the preoccupation circulating around the user. And, most importantly, the family usually does not know how to help. This is why, at Mental Health Central, family therapy is encouraged since it can be a very useful tool, for not only the addict’s progress, but also the family’s benefit.
Family therapy is important because many times the addiction has changed the healthy functionality of the family. Through counseling, there is a wealth of information that can help the user and the family move forward in recovery.
Family therapy sessions in treatment will usually involve most, if not all, of the following.
· Information on the addicts’ progress and the reason specific treatments are used
· Education for the family about the addiction and insight into how it has affected the family
· New communications skills that can be used among all family members, not just communication skills used with the addict
· Stress on the need for boundaries, to minimize the potential for enabling and codependency
· Education on the steps required to rebuild a healthy family structure
· Information to help the family understand that the whole family needs to recover, not just the addict
Overall, family therapy is intended to show that addiction is not merely an individual disease, but rather a family disease.
Moving Forward in Recovery
Just as the addict must apply maintenance to continue recovery, you — as a family member — must do the same. Like recovering from the patterns of addiction, changing family patterns can be hard to accomplish at first.
It is important that family members find the same health and happiness that an addict can find in recovery, and, in the end, move forward together. If you have any questions about what you can do as a family member of an addicted person, email us at recovery@iskia.co.ke or call us on +254 750 497 897 or +254 725 537 742. We can help you find treatment for your loved one — and recovery for yourself.
