Learn about Addiction and How it Affects Your Family
Having an addict in the family is a challenge for everyone involved.
The addict lives a life of loneliness, isolation, and uncertainty with the ever-present threat of arrest, overdose, and death. And for the family members, life is uncertain as well, with midnight phone calls, pleas for money, expensive trips to rehab, and frequent relapses.
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous states that an alcoholic is like a tornado roaring through a family’s lives.
It is easy to feel helpless when a family member is struggling with drinking or using drugs. Having an alcoholic loved one is heartbreaking and frightening, and the longer the situation goes on the more desperate you may become.
Watching someone you care about spiral down into alcoholism and substance abuse is never easy, but you are not alone.
We compiled a list of articles that can help your family better understand alcoholism and drug addiction. These articles were originally published on one of our four blogs.
We compiled them here in hopes that you can better understand addiction and find the help you and your family need to heal.
Addiction and Family Impacts
Addiction impacts the entire family.
Everyone from the parent who is using to the child that is not getting enough attention because the parents are continuously worried about their addicted child.
- 7 Ways Addiction Affects the Family
- Treat the Family, Not Just the Addict
- 10 Ways Addiction Impacts the Entire Family
The first step in getting help is helping yourself. Find a group family members can attend. Al-Anon is for friends and families of alcoholics. Al-Anon can improve the recovery experience for you and your loved one in treatment. Look for meetings in the neighborhood. Not all meetings are equally supportive, so go to several and see which one is the best fit. Usually, the treatment center where your loved is can help you find a healthy meeting.
Articles on Contributing to the Problem of Addiction
- Are You Enabling Someone Addicted to Alcohol or Drugs?
- Are you Supporting a Codependent Alcoholic?
- An In-Depth Look at Dysfunctional Family Roles Caused By Addiction
Understand Addiction
Substance use disorder, also referred to as drug addiction, affects a person’s brain and behavior. The disease leads to an inability to control the use of a substance—whether illegal or not.
The more you understand about addiction the better off you will be. But you will need help on top of this. That’s why we suggested above to get extra help at Al-Anon.
- What is the 3 Fold Disease of Alcoholism and Addiction?
- Mistaken Beliefs by Alcoholics on Avoiding Alcohol
- The Addiction Definition: How to Properly Classify Addiction
Understand There’s Not a Quick Fix
Many families believe that once their loved one goes to treatment the first time, they are cured. But the first 30 days are only the beginning. Read about the philosophy of the group your loved one is involved with. Learn as much as you can about the group, how it functions, who it includes, what the rules are and what to expect.
- What Happens When You’re 90 Days Sober?
- 30 Days of Sobriety, Now What?
- Life After Drug Treatment, Then What?
Have a Plan After Treatment
Ethical treatment centers will give your loved one a plan when they leave treatment so your loved one can keep treating mental health and substance use disorder or alcoholism. Often, transitional living is important for addiction treatment.
- How Aftercare Helps Transition to Life After Addiction
- Life After Drug Treatment: 6 Reasons Why an Aftercare Plan for Substance Abuse Works
- What is a Long-Term Community in Recovery and Why is it Important?
- The Benefits of Transitioning to Recovery Through Sober Living
- After Treatment, a Comprehensive Discharge Treatment Plan
Understand Chronic Relapse
The cycle of chronic relapse is far more common than most people struggling with addiction think. What most addicts and their family members may not realize is that chronic relapse is not caused by a lack of willpower. More often than not, the root cause is far more complicated than that.
Relapsing time and time again can take its toll on you, your family members, and everyone around you. In fact, it can be more damaging, time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally taxing than the actual process of rehabilitation itself.
There is a certain type of alcoholic that cannot get sober. Traditional 30 and 60-day treatment does not work. It can be like a revolving door. Money, time, and other resources can be exhausted. Learn about chronic relapse.
Underlying Mental Health Problems
Being a recovered member society and not being tempted to drink or use drugs is possible. But it takes a psychic change or attitude adjustment. Here are articles that will help you understand the 12 Step program and the mental shift that is required.
Understanding the Principles that Lead to Being Recovered
Being a recovered member of society and not being tempted to drink or use drugs is possible. But it takes a psychic change or attitude adjustment. Here are articles that will help you understand the 12 Step program and the mental shift that is required
- Why are the First 164 Pages of the Big Book so Important?
- Why We Don’t Believe in A.A. Slogans
- The Differences Between Recovering Alcoholics and Recovered Alcoholics
- How Do You Get Acceptance in Recovery?
- What Attitude in Recovery Really Means For Your Sobriety
- On Sobriety: What Life Looks Like After Alcohol
- Why Honesty on Addiction Recovery is Critical
Getting Professional Help
For decades now, the 12-steps have proven incredibly effective, with millions of success stories around the world. But in order for the model to work its magic, the recovering addicts themselves must do their part, and having the right kind of help and support from their family will help a lot as well. It’s critical to get professional help from ethical treatment centers.
