The journey of addiction recovery can be challenging at times, which is why it is important to have a supportive community. While friends and loved ones are key to this support, one’s family is of utmost importance. An unsupportive family and home environment can be a breaking point for many people seeking recovery. As a person works through their recovery, it is essential to have others around who are supportive and caring.
The Impact of Family on Addiction Recovery
Since recovery is a difficult process, support from family is a key component of one’s journey. While substance use disorders (SUDs) are not to be blamed on families, these disorders unearth the important role of the family in addiction and addiction recovery.
Genetic Factors
Often addiction is genetic, and one’s family history can contribute to substance addiction. It is common for non-substance addictions, such as process addictions, to run in families. Families also contribute to one’s substance use disorder through frequent relocation and transitions of other kinds, as well as family conflicts.
While families sometimes contribute to SUDs, these disorders also cause great stress on family members. SUDs can interrupt routines, create instability, impact finances, divide families, and affect each family member’s physical and mental health. These effects can last for years, creating more problems within the family complex and influencing everyone’s lives.
Family Enabling
Families can also enable substance use disorders or can have co-dependent relationships with the addicted family member. Enabling usually occurs with one’s realization. For instance, an addicted family member may ask for money for rent and then use this money for alcohol or drugs instead. In co-dependent relationships, both family members have an unhealthy attachment to one another; one gives too much, and the other becomes overly reliant.
With addiction in the family, the new normal alters, and there is more acceptance of the family lifestyle revolving around the addicted family member. Therefore, families often struggle to support the recovery process and sobriety for the family member out of fear and anxiety of their normal shifting once more.
Family Support
However, it is important to surround the addicted family member with a positive environment. Whether helping them find resources and services or supporting their decision to recover, family members should learn about the addiction and how they can support their loved one. Family members should provide acceptance, support, positivity, understanding, and love to the addicted family member. These factors can contribute to a healthier recovery journey, helping their loved one maintain abstinence and create a fulfilling life outside of addiction.
Other Sources of Support
If family members are unsupportive, it can be helpful to turn to friends or other loved ones outside the family. These two groups can create the supportive and positive energy necessary for recovery.
Also, the staff, team, and other clients in many recovery centers may provide a good community to turn to. All members of this community are rooting for everyone’s recovery. Through group therapy or other activities, everyone learns about each other and gains an understanding. This understanding helps people immensely with their recovery. When others can understand and listen without judgment, people with SUDs feel heard and encouraged to continue their recovery journey.
Often family alone is not enough to support the recovery journey. This is why the built-in community at recovery centers can be vital. Here, members of the center and recovery groups understand addiction personally and can offer support through this shared knowledge and experience.
The Community at Roots Recovery
When clients start a recovery journey at Roots Through Recovery, a team is created specifically for them. The support they need can come from this team as well as other members of group therapy sessions. This is considered part of the integrative care model, which invites everyone to be involved in one’s journey.
Bringing everyone together allows for a seamless and cohesive treatment and recovery plan. Likewise, Roots Through Recovery offers services that involve family members as well. With families being involved in different therapies, families can gather a deeper understanding of their loved one and learn how to support them.
A Family-Centered Approach
A family-centered or inclusive approach to treatment and recovery lets families understand the complexities of recovery and addiction. All of the needs of the family are addressed, rather than only the needs of the family member in addiction recovery.
Once one’s treatment and therapy plan conclude at Roots Through Recovery, the team created for the client does not disappear from their lives. Instead, Roots continues to provide ongoing support, offering services to clients as needed. Likewise, the staff encourages clients to gain a new sense of empowerment that does not rely on personal environments like family or friends. Staff members at Roots help open the doors to a new outlook on life supported by new friends who may also be other clients and a new community overall. This new community can be healthier because people understand each other emotionally and mentally. These community members also help prevent each other from falling back into old habits.
Here at Roots Recovery, we emphasize the importance of family in the recovery journey. Family can significantly impact a person’s addiction, either positively or negatively. When family members are supportive and reach out to help, this can be life-changing for a person with an addiction. When this happens, the family structure also benefits as family members learn more about themselves emotionally and connect on a deeper level. Family support can be essential in encouraging your recovery and long-term abstinence if you’re seeking recovery from addiction. Whether you have a supportive family or not, we provide a caring, compassionate community at Roots Recovery to promote a successful recovery. To learn more about what we offer, call (562) 473-0827.
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