Addiction affects an individual as well as their close friends and family. If you have a loved one who is in recovery or struggling with addiction, it can be a difficult time, with damage to communication and relationships, problems with broken trust, and trying to find a balance between supporting them and prioritizing your own well-being.
Thankfully, there are several resources for families of addicts that include things like family therapy as well as support groups and education.
Resources for Families of Addicts: Family Therapy
The biggest resources for families of addicts have to do with family therapy. Family therapy is something that can take place with an individual who is in recovery or without them.
Family therapy is a way for family members to recognize unhealthy patterns or family dynamics that may have resulted from addiction and work as a unit to recover from them and make positive changes.
The goals of family therapy are to help everyone in a way that ensures recovery is successful while also strengthening the emotional bonds and helping to do things like the following:
- Turning distrust into reconciliation
- Alleviating guilt and replacing it with forgiveness
- Removing stress in exchange for strength
- Turning frustration into understanding
- Changing anger into peace
- Converting conflict into agreements
- Changing a crisis into a resolution
Family Education Resources
On a related note, other resources for families of addicts include family education. Family education is a type of behavioral health program that provides information on things like:
- Specific addictions
- Individual mental health disorders
- Treatment
- Relapse
- Recovery
This information can be used by families to better understand what is happening to their loved one, particularly when a loved one is in recovery, and how they can best support their loved one in treatment. This type of education is very important, and it can be used in conjunction with family therapy to help learn how best to adjust to life with someone who is in recovery rather than addicted and how to use the education gained from those types of programs successfully.
Resources for Families of Addicts: Support Groups
In addition to family therapy and family educational resources, you can find support groups designed just for friends and family members who have someone struggling with addiction. AA, NA, and SMART Recovery programs can provide a safe place to discuss issues, hiccups, successes, and lessons learned and to share those things with one another.
One of the nice things about these types of resources for families of addicts is that they are accessible no matter where you are. they are equally accessible no matter what stage of recovery your loved one might be in.
For example, if you go on vacation for a few weeks with your loved one who is in recovery, and they get triggered and wander off unexpectedly, and you don’t know if they’re coming back, you can find peace and comfort in a local meeting:
- AA Family and Friends meetings
- NA Family Groups
- SMART Recovery Family groups
These are also good resources if, for example, a loved one who has completed treatment and has spent several months or years in recovery suddenly starts to display signs of potential relapse or chronic stress, and you need help staying strong and creating a supportive environment.
Resources for Families of Addicts: Multi-Concept Recovery
With Multi-Concept Recovery, we believe in providing families with the resources they need to treat things like mental health and addiction in a loved one. A big part of the success behind our treatment programs is that we utilize evidence-based, individualized treatment that offers the highest likelihood of long-term success, which includes family integration.
The more clients are able to address their entire person, including their physical health, emotional well-being, and mental and spiritual needs, the more likely they are to remain successful long-term in their recovery. Studies indicate that individuals who have family with them during their recovery to support them and simultaneously develop better education as to how substance abuse works are more likely to create a supportive environment for an individual in recovery.
For example, when individuals participate in our intensive outpatient program, they come to our facility during the day and return home at the end of their treatment each day. When home, it’s important to have a loving, supportive environment that doesn’t enable bad behaviors and supports things like coping mechanisms.
Overall, there are several resources for families of addicts that include education, therapy, and support groups from facilities like Multi-Concept Recovery. The more you are able to support a loved one with addiction, the higher their chances of long-term success. However, a large part of that ability to support someone means taking care of your own personal well-being at the same time.
