When someone is ready to seek help for their addiction to alcohol or drugs, family members can play a huge part in their drug abuse treatment. In fact, family involvement can be instrumental in reaching long-term recovery for many addicts. Many recovery centers, like The Discovery House, provide treatment for the entire family in order to help all family members understand the disease of addiction, rebuild family relationships, as well as to remain a source of encouragement and support to their loved one who is in recovery.
Benefits of Family Therapy in Drug Abuse Treatment
Learning About the Disease of Addiction
You might be surprised to hear that even for someone who lives through addiction every day, how little addicts and loved ones of addicts really know about addiction. By learning to understand the disease model of addiction and how it affects someone with a substance abuse problem, families can learn how to better deal with the issues related to their loved one’s addiction abuse.
Rebuild Family Relationships
Because addiction has such a negative impact on family and friends, many relationships have been harmed or severed before treatment takes place. Family therapy sessions allow loved ones to meet with a professional that specializes in treating families, where they are encouraged to express their feelings, address past conflict, and work toward healthier interactions in the future.
Helps End Enabling
When someone you love is struggling with addiction, you will want to try everything you can to help them. Though it comes from a good place, your efforts may not be what they need. Family therapy will help give you the tools you need to help your loved one through to long-term recovery without enabling their addictive behavior.
Source of Support
Throughout their recovery, your loved one is going to need a lot of support. Attending a regular family therapy program with them will teach you the most effective ways to offer positive support and encouragement from the beginning of their treatment program through the end.
Helps with Aftercare Treatment and Support
During the early months of recovery up until the first year is when those recovering from drug abuse will be at the highest risk for relapse. Family involvement in aftercare is important because it helps loved one’s of addicts learn what to do when they think a relapse could be near as well as some essential relapse prevention tools.
Our family program is a strong component to the recovery of many of the residents at The Discovery House. Each Saturday, we welcome families into our facilities for our multifamily group sessions as well as individual family consults to provide information and resources on how to be supportive during your loved one’s recovery. We encourage family togetherness, and we work with individuals and families to help address underlying issues that have contributed to the addiction.
If you are in recovery, how have your loved ones supported you? How could they have done better? Sound off in the comments below or via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
If someone you love is struggling with a substance abuse problem, call us today at (855) 203-7930 and the treatment specialists at The Discovery House will help you to begin your path to long-term recovery.