Groups For Families Of Addicts

What Is Your Role

As a professional social worker, you already understand your role. You are a facilitator of support for individuals and families struggling with addiction. You could also encourage the patients family members to seek support of their own. One of the most effective ways is to connect family members with family support groups.

For more information on support groups for families of addicts and treatment services at our addictions recovery center, contact Recovery Centers of America today by calling 1-800-RECOVERY.

James Malervy

Why People Join Addiction Support Groups

A 2013 survey has found that the majority of the people initially participate in addiction support groups, Al-Anon in particular, because of the following reasons below.

• They like anonymity it offers.
• They want a circle of friends they can relate to.
• They hope to have fewer problems with the addicted loved one/
• They know people know benefited from it
• They are stressed, anxious, unable to relax
• They want Al-Anon to trigger to get professional treatment

Things To Consider When Choosing A Support Group

Finding a support group may seem overwhelming. First, being vulnerable and confronting difficult emotions in front of others can be challenging. Its important to consider the value of support groups while exploring the many options to choose from. Consider the following when choosing a support group:

• How often does the group meet per week?
• What is the structure of this support group?
• Are there programs for other relatives?
• Does the group include spiritual of health-based coping mechanisms?
• How long does each meeting last?
• What are the financing options for each meeting ?

While group meetings take place, it may be helpful to consider the following group dynamics:

• How do you feel in terms of expression?
• Do other members make it uncomfortable?
• Are my concerns addressed?
• Are members able to connect with privacy?
• Is the information provided in each meeting effective?

It will always feel uncomfortable in the beginning when someone steps outside of their comfort zone and tries something newespecially a support group. It can be helpful to attend a groups meetings 3 times before deciding to join. During this process, it is important to be open minded and to look for similarities with others, not differences. When reaching out, one should try to be non-judgmental and to compare oneself with others. It is about relating to emotions not experiences.

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The Importance Of Family Support For Opioid Addiction

Opioid addiction is a chronic disease with biological, psychological, and environmental factors that affects millions of Americans and their families. Oftentimes, those closest to individuals suffering substance abuse struggle the most, and for numerous reasons. Family and friends uncomfortably watch their loved ones transform in harmful ways, lost to the grip of dangerous substances. Because of this, family members could benefit from support groups.

Family members, coworkers, and friends witness the mind and body of their loved ones change. They endure difficult home situations where moods change. Trust and communication become compromised. Parents may unfortunately lose their children to the streets as they fuel their Opioid habit and endanger their relationships, careers, education, mind, body, and health. As she fuels an Opioid habit, she also endangers her body, health and family relationships. Misunderstandings and arguments become normal methods of communication. Eventually, a happy home becomes a place of confusion, hopelessness, and despair.

Family members often begin to display symptoms of co-dependency as a coping method for the unpredictable behavior of their addicted loved one. Often, family members do not realize when they are enabling their loved ones when their intentions are to help them.

Enthusiastic Sobriety Relies On Providing Support To The Entire Family

Parents of drug abusers experience a wide range of emotions drug abuse or drug addiction in the family is a very scary thing to have to deal with. Fear, guilt, anger, depression, confusion, and hopelessness can cripple any parent wrestling with addiction in the home. Other parents who have been through the addiction and treatment process can provide empathetic support. For many parents, this is the first step towards getting help or addressing any mental health issues that have arisen as a result of having a drug abuser in the home. The tools of enthusiastic sobriety apply as well to parents as to teens and young adults. These techniques provide parents with the opportunity to develop strategies for family recovery. Even if you have tried something like Nar Anon or Al Anon family groups in the past, you may find that our unique perspective related to young people with drug problems is more useful to you.

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Adhere To A Formal Sleep/wake Schedule

Some of the more dangerous addictive behaviors often occur in the middle of the night. People with addictions can meet dealers, overdose, stumble home from parties or get into other situations that family members have to deal with. Its no surprise, then, that some families in the recovery process struggle with sleep. Parts of their brains are ready and waiting for the next nighttime crisis to arise.

Regular sleep loss can make the recovery process more difficult. For example, studies show that sleep deprivation is linked to a range of social and emotional problems, including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal and lack of motivation. Setting a consistent, adequate sleep schedule can help you get the rest you need to function your best and cope with the challenges of having a loved one with an addiction.

What To Expect At Our Parent Support Group Meetings

• Weekly 12 step based support groups for families / parents of drug addicts or substance abusers.
• Opportunity to connect with other parents who can relate and offer suggestions and hope.
• You will learn strategies to respond to your loved one as they go through the ups and downs of their recovery journey.
• You will acquire tools to manage the difficult emotions associated with the early recovery process.
• You will learn how to set up boundaries with your child and stick to them without compromising your own morals and beliefs.
• Counselors will be in attendance at the meeting, providing guidance and support through the process.

Providing help for families of addicts is an integral part of all Insight Program locations. Please contact the location nearest you to inquire about substance abuse / drug addiction support groups for families, teatment options, and assessments.

Stonebrakers Inc.

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Help And Support For Your Family

Addiction is called “a family disease” for good reason. Families are in pain. By the time most families reach out for help, the disease has progressed to a crisis level. Families feel traumatized and overwhelmed. There are arguments and confrontations, slamming doors, and sleepless nights. Addiction often brings more serious trouble such as an accident, a lost job, or arrest.

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundations family programs and resources are designed to help you and your loved ones learn about the disease of addiction and understand the impact on your interactions, relationships and well-being. Our programs and services equip and empower you and your family members to work through the chaos you’ve experienced, understand how to set healthy boundaries, and rebuild trusting relationships.

What Are Support Groups For Families Of Addicts

Most people are familiar with support groups for people struggling with drug or alcohol abuse. What some may not know is that many support groups for families of addictsexist. These groups offer a new level of ways to heal from an addiction that brings the family into the circle of getting well. Support groups are typically free and open to anyone who fits the criteria. For example, a support group for people with substance use disorders should only be attended by those trying to overcome addiction.

Alternatively, family support groups are for those who have a loved one dealing with a drug or alcohol addiction. These support groups can be led by a therapist or by someone who has a great deal of experience dealing with having a loved one who is sick with addiction. The leader of the group guides each meeting, offering their support and expertise. Groups spend time listening to members talk about their challenges, fears, and experiences. Everyone in the group can offer their insight, support, and advice.

Support groups sometimes have a guest speaker who contributes ideas or a story designed to help the families feel understood and make progress. Overall, people can tell their stories, express their fears, and both give and receive advice. The definition of family doesnt have to include just relatives. Good friends often feel as close as family members. For this reason, close friends often take part in support groups for families.

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Family Drug Intervention Services: Where To Find Help

Addiction and substance abuse affects millions of families across the country each year. Addiction can cause serious problems in the home, ranging from financial hardships to divorce to domestic violence. Overcoming addiction is the best way to fix

addictedFamily drughelp familiesfamiliesmembers

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Local Family & Friends Meetings

In an effort to meet the interest and demand for locally-available SMART Recovery Family & Friends meetings, there is a growing number of areas where local SMART Recovery Family & Friends meetings are now offered.

You can get more information on SMART Recovery meetings in the local meetings directory.

Are you interested in starting a Family & Friends meeting in your area or for your practice? Get more information

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Tools And Support For Providing Effective Non

Our skills training for Family & Friends includes tools for positive communication skills and other strategies to help you change the dynamics of your relationship with your loved one. This method has been proven to be more successful than harsh interventions or complete detachment.

Our mutual desire is that your loved one will take on the choice to pursue their own recovery and that you will learn ways of improving your life at the same time.

Connect With Understanding Peers

Its not always easy to live with or support someone who has an addiction. As research points out, addiction in a close relative can serve as a stressful life situation that persists for years, and that long-term dysfunction can make it hard for families to communicate clearly. There can be a block of mistrust between every member of a family touched by the addiction.

Connecting with peers can help, particularly if families use a well-established, trusted program like Al-Anon or Alateen. The goal of these programs is to provide help for families of those living with addiction. They also provide a safe, nonjudgmental space where family members can learn, discuss and cope with an addiction unfolding in their midst.

People go to meetings like this for all sorts of reasons, but one survey found that many participants were drawn to meetings in hopes of finding help with:

• Finding a better quality of life
• Having fewer problems with the addicted person
• Lowering levels of stress
• Improving psychological health

These are lofty goals, but meetings really can help. By going to a meeting and listening to other family members, feelings of isolation and doubt may begin to fade. Families may also get the skills they need to better handle the interpersonal problems theyre facing. These meetings can help families learn how to deal with a loved ones addiction.

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Why Are Support Groups For Families Of Addicts Important

When a loved one struggles with addiction, it may feel important to get them the support and treatment they need. However, addiction is a family and community condition. Without learning about addiction and exploring healthy coping strategies for supporting an addicted loved one, you may end up enabling your loved one or experiencing burnout.

Joining a support group for families of addicts has many benefits, including:

• Learning about addiction

Enabling Addiction: How Your Help Can Actually Harm The Alcoholic/addict

Many of us have inadvertently provided support for addicted loved ones in ways that are not beneficial. When we take on responsibilities like providing financial support for an addict we are helping that person to continue using without facing the natural consequences of active addiction. Actions which can enable your loved one to continue using include

• Providing housing/paying their bills
• Lying to cover up for them with family, friends, employers
• Bailing them out of jail and paying for an attorney

It is extremely difficult to stand by as your loved one becomes homeless or stays in jail or faces the numerous harsh consequences that come from addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs. But addiction denial is a common symptom in an addict/alcoholics thought processes. Most addicts wont seek help to stop using until they are forced to face the reality of their situation.

Alcohol/drugs have impaired your loved ones ability to think rationally. In order for somebody who is so impaired to see their situation clearly and seek help, usually life has to scream at them to get their full attention. In recovery lingo this is called hitting bottom.

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Support Groups For Families Of Drug Addicts Near Me

• Access to licensed treatment centers
• Information on treatment plans

Drug addiction affects the entire family, from parents to children, brothers to sisters, and sometimes even close friends. While substance abuse affects each family differently, there are many common adversities among families facing drug addiction, including financial difficulties, legal issues, emotional distress, and domestic violence.

Loving someone struggling with addiction can be incredibly difficult, painful, and chaotic. Because drug addiction impacts the whole family, treating the addicted person may not, on its own, result in any lasting changes within the family unit.1

Support groups can be a vital resource for the family and friends of those struggling with addiction. Family members may experience a variety of emotional responses to their loved ones drug addiction, including guilt, shame, anxiety, grief, and anger.1,2 Support groups may be facilitated by a licensed social worker, psychotherapist, or addictions counselor. They will often include peers working through similar family struggles and provide a safe, supportive environment in which family members can process and heal any emotional wounds theyve sustained as a result of addiction.2,3,4 They can help validate these normal emotional responses and share what theyve done to deal with them, including getting their own therapy and setting healthy boundaries with their addicted loved one.5,6

The Pros And Cons Of Drug Rehab Centers

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The Benefits Of Support Groups For Families Affected By Addiction And Mental Illness

Addiction is a family disease that affects everyone close to the person who has a substance use disorder. Groups designed for family members can help support positive outcomes for everyone touched by addiction and other behavioral health issues. It is important to remember that if you think you need support, you are not alone, and there are others who have been through similar experiences who can help you.

Help Get Family Support To Deal With A Drug Addicted Or Alcoholic Spouse

Addiction can take a toll on any marriage. It can create a variety of problems for couples including financial hardship, arguments, trust issues, legal problems, and codependent behaviors. Loving a spouse with a substance use problem creates a unique set of challenges that only a person who has experienced it firsthand can truly understand. Support groups can provide spouses of addicted loved ones with the support of a group of peers who can relate to their struggle.

All of the support groups listed above provide supportive services to spouses and other family members of addicted people.

There are also supportive programs available exclusively for spouses, including:

• Recovering Couples Anonymous: Recovering Couples Anonymous is a support program that uses the principles of AA but is not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. They provide support groups for any couple who is suffering from addictions or other dysfunctions that are impacting their relationships. The only requirement to join Recovering Couples is that the couple is committed to remain together, to work on improving their relationship, and to deepen their intimacy with one another. They are currently offering meetings in 15 U.S. states.
• Al-Anon for Spouses and Partners: In some locations, Al-Anon offers special support programs for spouses and romantic partners of individuals with alcoholism. Check their website to find out what programs may be available near you.

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How To Support Someone With An Addiction

Dont try to help someone with an addiction on your own. Substance use disorder, the medical term for addiction, is a chronic disease. You wouldnt try to treat other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, without help.

You would want to learn as much as you can about the illness and urge your loved one to seek professional treatment. After the person visits the doctor, youd encourage him or her to make healthy lifestyle changes. Those are the same steps you should take to help someone with an addiction.