When individuals are stuck in cycles of active addiction, they may not realize how the effects of their substance abuse are not only harming their well-being but also that of their loved ones. Family members, in particular, experience intense ripple effects of a loved one’s addiction and often struggle with knowing how to respond. For instance, family members may engage in enabling behaviors in an attempt to keep the peace. Yet, leaving addiction untreated will exacerbate symptoms in the long run. Learning more about the value of family support for sobriety and recovery can promote family involvement in the treatment process.
At Athens Area Commencement Center, we believe that the family unit plays a vital role in the addiction recovery process. This is because addiction affects more than the individual with the disease; rather, it affects everyone in its wake as well. At our facility, we offer a wide range of treatment program options for those seeking to overcome substance use disorder (SUD) and addiction, as well as their families. Family therapy is one of the many opportunities we offer to promote family support in recovery, which strengthens communication and conflict-resolution skills as a family member attends rehab.
How Addiction Impairs Family Functioning
To best understand why family support plays a key role in an individual’s ability to achieve and sustain lifelong sobriety, it is first important to address how family members are impacted by a loved one’s addiction. As noted in Social Work & Public Health, “The effects of [SUD] are felt by the whole family.” For example, “Each family and each family member is uniquely affected by the individual using substances including but not limited to having unmet developmental needs, impaired attachment, economic hardship, legal problems, emotional distress, and sometimes violence being perpetrated against him or her.”
The article also highlights that the family member with addiction also influences the type of ripple effects experienced by other family members. For instance, when a parent is struggling with SUD, the family may experience “disruption of attachment, rituals, roles, routines, communication, social life, and finances.” In addition, children of parents with SUD experience an increased risk of addiction in life.
As family members begin to take on specific roles and rituals in an attempt to keep the peace, such family dysfunction may become normal. For example, the family member with addiction may deny the severity of their substance use, and, in turn, other family members may ignore the presence of a problem to reduce conflict. As a result, the family environment may develop characteristics of secrecy, fear, conflict, violence, emotional chaos, and more. With time, these experiences can impair a family’s ability to communicate healthily and support one another effectively in daily life.
The Benefits of Family Support in Recovery
When the family is involved in the addiction recovery process, it can promote long-lasting healing for all family members. More specifically, as BML Open explains, “[F]amily involvement in treatment can reduce the harms and can also improve treatment entry, treatment completion and treatment outcomes for the individual coping with an addiction.”
When family support is incorporated into an individual’s recovery journey, it provides a source of healthy accountability that can foster self-esteem and confidence. Family members are available to provide emotional and informational support to the individual on demand. In addition, family members can also develop new strategies and tools to best support their loved one, limit enabling behaviors, and prioritize their health and well-being in the process.
Family Support in Recovery: What Does It Look Like?
In addiction recovery, family support can take a wide range of forms. It can blossom merely from the family unit’s willingness to participate in their loved one’s treatment journey. One example of this is initiating open and honest conversations about mental health and substance use as a family. Some important topics to cover in a discussion can include healthy expectations of one another in daily life, how to navigate a situation when a family member is triggered, and examples of boundaries in interpersonal relationships.
If family function is impaired due to a family member’s substance abuse, professional intervention may be necessary to rebuild communication and conflict resolution among the family unit. This is one of the many reasons why we at Athens Area Commencement Center offer family therapy. In family therapy, family members will also learn how to keep one another accountable for the expectations set by one another, as well as how to navigate disappointment throughout the recovery journey.
Other examples of family support in recovery can look like:
- Reevaluating one’s personal use of alcohol and other drugs, as well as potential underlying motives
- Removing alcohol and other drugs from the home environment
- Creating substance-free family events
- Intervening in a crisis situation
- Connecting a family member with treatment options
- Becoming educated on addiction as a disease and what the recovery process looks like
- Sharing lessons learned in treatment with each other
- Attending support groups for family members
- Developing effective coping strategies for stress and adversity
While it is often preached that individuals with addiction need to utilize professional treatment, family members should also consider participating in treatment to enhance family functioning and well-being for all family members. Family support and family involvement in recovery can lead to improved health outcomes, including greater treatment retention and relapse prevention throughout lifelong recovery. In addition, restoring family functioning ensures that family members can lean on one another for support through challenging times of adversity. At Athens Area Commencement Center, we believe that family involvement plays an essential role in recovery success. To learn more about our family therapy program or other program options we offer, give us a call today at (706) 546-7355.