Addiction is an issue which affects the whole community. Because even if you’re not addicted to drugs, you’re affected in a way as a family member of a relative. That’s why when a member is drug addict, its effects are reflected in the whole family system, as each member tries to cope with the instability and strange behaviors.
While some families may deny the reality to cope with situation, others face the situation head-on and try to understand their role in addiction recovery, hence bringing the household in complete sobriety.
The support of a family is critical during addiction recovery. The process may not take days, or even few years to cure, and it therefore calls for unrelenting efforts of support (who else apart from family members?)
Below are ways a spouse, a friend, or relative can help a loved one in their journey to addiction recovery.
Family Therapy
Organizing family therapies and inviting the addicted members can significantly hasten their recovery process. Since addiction can substantially tear family relationships and develop big rifts, participating in family therapy can help mitigate the effects, or better yet, restore health family relationships.
It’s during these family therapies that members get to understand the situation of their loved one as a long-time condition. This prepares them to figure out the appropriate efforts to help their loved one; efforts that won’t die soon when no signs of cure.
Co-Dependence
Co-dependence occurs when you develop certain unhealthy behaviors as a result of trying to cope with the dysfunction in the family unit. When you’re co-dependent, you’re likely to get so involved in the recovering of your loved one that you don’t attend to your personal needs and wants.
- Some behaviors of co-dependency include;
- Excessive worry about the loved one’s substance abuse, often leading to stress
- Avoiding people from outside the family in an attempt to prevent discussion about the matter
- Denying the reality about the situation of your loved one
- Neglecting your physical, emotional and spiritual needs due to solely concentrating on the situation of your loved one
- Low self-esteem, due to close attachment with your loved one
- Unreasonable anger as a result of your loved one’s situation mostly redirected to others
- Engaging in unhealthy compulsive behaviors like eating, long walks, etc
- Making your moods dependent on your loved ones
- Supporting the behaviors of your loved one, so long as it makes them happy
Creating Conducive Recovery Environment
A family plays a critical role in creating an environment which allows for recovery. For instance, when a loved has just come home from a recovery center, they may have to deal with a couple of issues. Some include and not limited to dealing with factors that lead to drug abuse, emotions, resentment, frustrations and anger among others.
When the family addresses these issues, they will end up creating a conducive environment for addiction recovery.
Consider A Recovery Center
In extreme cases of drug addiction, a family may decide to consult an addiction recovery expert for specialized treatment or admissions.
Recoverycentersofamerica.com is perfectly fit for recovery treatment. Because when your loved one enrolls in their program, the family gets access to family-based programs that help them understand and cope with drug addiction of their loved one.
Once you enroll in these recovery programs, your family doesn’t only get to understand your drug addiction and treatment but heal along with you. It becomes easy for the family to play a positive a role in drug addiction recovery.
Social Support
All beings are social beings and is your loved dug addicted love one. A good social network of friends, family and helps reduce the feeling of isolation and frustration which are common during early stages of drug addiction.
A family which prioritizes the recovery of their loved one will purpose to be part of a supportive social system. When social networks are functional, it will be easy to communicate with the loved one, as apply what you learned in family therapy programs. Open and honest dialogues encourage fast and effective recovery which is the goal of every affected family.
Relapse Prevention
Engaging in recovery process for your loved one is a good thing, but keeping your expectations in check is essential. You should always note that addiction is a chronic condition, and relapse can happen along the way.
This is however not to mean that your loved one will never recover someday, but instead in need of additional time to cope with triggers and urges.
You can help your loved one overcome relapse by being aware of relapse signals such as withdrawing from family support groups, exposing themselves to triggers, struggling with stress and depression, being defensive to any change reinforced upon them.
Get to understand them, and instead of getting yourself stressed, you will end up being there for them in their journey to recovery.
In many cases, the cases around drug addiction may create severe rifts in the family set up. A family should step in and address such problems and increase the chances of recovery. When these issues remain unsolved, the chances of recovery are greatly reduced.
When the family adequately addresses these issues, an addict can easily achieve recovery goals faster.
For a family, understanding what is involved in the drug recovery process is essential to helping yourself and your loved one. Though addiction is one an individual’s disease, the recovery is a family process.
Useful Apps
Technology is nearly touching every aspect of our lives, and addiction recovery is no exception. Below are some samples on addiction recovery related apps:
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