When someone struggles with addiction, they’re not the only ones that are suffering. Often, family members are struggling along with them. Drug or alcohol abuse can greatly impact the family dynamic. It causes permanent damage to the relationships, mental health, and physical health of everyone involved. Family therapy can provide everyone in the family the help and stability they need in order to understand, learn, and heal.
The Purpose Of Family Therapy
Addiction is often considered a family disease because of the massive impact it can have on a family unit. People who are close to someone struggling with addiction can be impacted emotionally, physically, and financially. Some may even become extremely fearful of their loved one’s actions. Children who witness repeated substance use could be influenced to try the substance. Children who are exposed to the chaos of drug or alcohol addiction could face lifelong issues. This family disease then ultimately can be passed down to another generation of addiction.
Family therapy provides these fraying family units with a neutral location where everyone involved can talk about how addiction has affected them. They can also discuss what areas of family life trigger addictive behaviors and how those triggers can be avoided in the future.
Why Participating In Family Therapy Is Important
Some people may believe that the loved one struggling with addiction is the only one that should participate in addiction counseling. However, the family can have a massive impact on whether or not their loved one remains sober after treatment. Families can benefit from participating in ongoing behavioral therapy.
Treating only one person involved with the addiction problems will not fix all of the issues in the family. There is often a lot of underlying pain associated with families broken from addiction. Family therapy provides all family members an opportunity to open up, talk about their experiences, and learn from each other in a healthy way. Because everyone involved in the situation can alter reality in order to protect themselves, therapy can be an eye-opening experience that leads to long-term healing for the entire family.
Family members can also unintentionally enable their loved one’s addictive behavior. and could lead them back to substance abuse once treatment is over. That’s why treatment centers that provide family therapy programs focus on teaching family members:
- How addiction affects the body and the brain.
- What they can do in order to help their loved ones during recovery.
- Prevent future substance abuse problems for everyone in the family unit.
- How to identify arguments and conflicts and how to deal with them properly.
- Learn to trust others.
- How to forgive others.
- Re-build relationships and communication with their loved one.
The information and tools family members learn during therapy can help them cope with past pain and allow them to provide their loved ones with a stable environment where they can recover and stay sober for years to come.
Steps To Recovery Can Provide You With The Family Therapy That Can Help Everyone
At Steps To Recovery, we focus our family program on understanding and connection. We want family members to be able to empathize with their loved one and build connections that break the emotional cycle that comes with addiction.
If you have a loved one struggling with addiction, Steps To Recovery can provide all of you a neutral, comforting location where you can all learn, heal, and build strong bonds that will last the rest of your lives. Your family member doesn’t have to keep struggling with addiction, and neither do you. Addiction help is available for you and your loved one. Call Steps To Recovery today at267.719.8528 to talk with an addiction expert about our family program and other treatment options.