Family therapy for addiction recovery has become common practice in the field of addiction medicine. This is because addiction doesn’t just affect the person who is using drugs and alcohol. It tends to have a ripple effect that touches everyone in its wake. This is what makes helping the family so imperative to helping the addict succeed in maintaining a life of recovery. Having the family begin to heal and learn ways of coping with their loved one’s actions can help to create a supportive environment for the person to recover.
How Addiction Affects the Family
Anyone who has been affected by the actions of a person who struggles with addiction can attest to the difficulty of the situation. Watching someone you love go down a path of total self-destruction is draining and completely heartbreaking. Addiction doesn’t only affect the addicted person. The family can experience just as much pain as the addict can.
Knowing that you cannot help them or make them help themselves can be a daunting realization to come to. It can hurt, and it can lead to broken trust, broken relationships, and broken hearts. Healing from this type of pain can be difficult. But family therapy for addiction recovery can help the family to heal, and learn positive, non-enabling ways of helping their loved one begin to recover.
What is Family Therapy?
A broad term that describes the process of treating the family as a whole, family therapy encompasses different forms of therapy that can help to include the family and other loved ones of the person struggling in the healing process. It can provide a safe space to process and understand what the person who struggles is going through, as well as for the addict to truly begin to understand the strain their addiction to drugs and alcohol has caused within the family.
Family therapy for addiction recovery can be a beneficial starting point for the family to begin their own recovery process alongside their loved one.
Benefits of Family Therapy for Addiction Recovery
The benefits of family therapy for addiction recovery are endless. Therapy can not only help the addicted person but the family as well. The goal of family therapy is to begin improving the overall wellness and functionality of the family to help the addict maintain their recovery.
Repairing Broken Relationships
As addicts, people tend to break trust within the family unit. They tend to hurt those they love the most, not necessarily physically, but more emotionally. By using drugs and alcohol, your loved one may be breaking promises, breaking commitments, and causing what can seem to be irreparable damage to your relationship.
However, family therapy for addiction recovery can begin to mend these broken relationships. It can allow you to open up to your loved one about what their using has done in your life, the family, and in many cases the children’s lives. It can allow you to feel safe, and productive in expressing your feelings.
Strengthening Relapse Prevention
The family can be the first line of defense when relapse is on the horizon. Family therapy for addiction recovery emphasizes understanding what addiction really is, as well as identifying possible signs of impending relapse. Having family members to provide support or understanding when someone wants to give up and begin using drugs and alcohol again can help the person who is struggling to stay the course, and choose a different path than they are used to taking.
Education for the Family on Addiction
Family therapy for addiction recovery allows for a space of learning. The family can learn about addiction, and the effects it can have on the person using drugs and alcohol. They can learn ways to support their loved one, and ways of helping themselves not to get overwhelmed. Because having a loved one who struggles with substance abuse is an overwhelming experience. The reality is, it takes patience and understanding to fully be able to support your loved one as they embark on a journey to recovery.
Teaching Healthy Supportive Boundaries for the Family
There is a way to provide support, love, and understanding for your loved one without enabling them to continue their reckless behaviors. Learning healthy and supportive boundaries through family therapy for addiction recovery can help the family to learn ways of approaching different situations without causing harm to themselves or their loved one.
Improving Family Communication Skills
Communication is key. Learning how to effectively communicate feelings and what is going on is vital to having a productive conversation with your loved one. Family therapy for addiction recovery can be a catalyst for improving communication skills within the family.
Addiction Recovery and Family Therapy in Louisville, KY
If you or a loved one struggle with substance abuse and addiction, there is help available to you. You don’t have to continue down a road of self-destruction. You can get better. The family dynamic can get better. At Louisville Addiction Center we offer a personalized treatment plan for those struggling with addiction and this can include family therapy to strengthen the bonds and relationships within the family unit. Reach out to us today and begin your healing process.
502-586-4554
