Archive for the ‘Family Roles in Addiction’ Category

As much as addiction may seem like an individual problem, it is also interconnected with the family. Family roles in addiction, according to Hawaii Island Recovery’s Big Island Rehab, can make or break the rehabilitation and treatment. They say that addiction can be managed by the person and the people around them, to bring things in control. However, there are families that could actually contribute to the addiction instead of helping the person move out of it. It could be in the simple caring gestures or reprimand that pushes the person more into the addiction. One common example of this would be drinking, where the person would be easily upset about something that he would go drinking instead of facing the problem. The family members could reprimand, but more often than not, the addicted person would see this as another problem to get away from and will not listen at all.

Another factor contributing to this would be the attitude towards the addiction. Instead of being able to help the person get out of it, they belittle the ability of the person to move out of the situation, thinking that all it takes to get out of it is sheer willpower. The fact of the matter is that an addiction also has something to do with the person’s biology as well. It’s not only a lack of sense of morality, but also an imbalance within a person’s physiology. Family members must also be able to understand this, that the longer the person has been addicted to something, the body will tend to depend on it, like it was something the person cannot live without, as if it had been a part of being able to breathe.

What families should do

Families should be able to understand the situation that the person is in now and be able to positively support him. The main factor in being able to help someone recover is for the family to be able to understand the situation completely and be able to act accordingly to hold strong for their family member. However, families should also be able to give the tough love that the family member would need. There are some instances if the addiction gets worse, it could end in the family’s hands to turn the family member over to the police or to an institution.

It is also part of the roles of the family to make other members of the family understand the issues at hand, and what must be done to help one another. This is not an easy task, and conflicts could always arise between family members. Tension is high when there is a serious problem between family members and it’s something that needs resolution to be able to focus on the bigger problem at hand.

What families should understand

Family roles in addiction involve understanding how they are helping the addicted family member. Sometimes it’s not easy to see that we might be in denial of the situation or actually enabling the addition to be worse. If the person is someone you used to really depend on, you might actually be just waiting for him to get over his addiction instead of helping him get out of it. Knowing your role as a family member can contribute greatly both ways, and it will contribute more once your family member begins the recover process.

Recovering from an addiction is no miracle, and there will always be relapse. Family members should understand that there will be times that their family member suffering from an addiction will eventually go back to the need to have that addiction. Family members should be aware of the types of symptoms that they would find. Most common symptoms would be the opposite of what the drug or substance gives them. If the drugs gave them a certain high, they would feel depressed and would most likely have anxiety attacks, convincing themselves that they would feel better if they had the addiction. If the drugs they used made them lethargic or kept them calm, they would always be found anxious and unable to control themselves in light of a problem or a stressful situation.

Going through Hawaii Island Recovery’s Big Island Rehab

Rehab has long stopped being only for the addicted person and has become an avenue for families to also heal themselves. We are all interconnected in our relationships with people, and someone can get through something better with other people for support. Understanding as a family is also a big step for anyone going through something big. Big Island Rehab specializes in a lot of areas of addiction rehabilitation and will dedicate their expertise in helping the addicted and identifying the roles of the family members.

Treatment through Hawaii Island Recovery’s Big Island Rehab assures respect, privacy and safety to all their clients and their professionalism is paramount in treating addiction both in the physical and mental aspect. They match up their treatment based on what the addiction is and how the family is treating the problem together. They get as much information as they can and make their treatment as personalized as possible, still connecting it the validated interventions used worldwide. With this in mind, they can help the family be part of every step of the way of the recovery.

This rehabilitation program also has a long term support plan once their client is out of the woods. They will provide plans for the person’s continuing care and recovering at home, work and their community. In these plans also involve what the family can commit through the said process of continuous recovery. They have what is called a Discharge Plan which they will help you plan out what should be done as a family to be able to support each other.

Addiction is not a light matter, and it can affect not only the addicted, but also the different groups of people from which he is involved in. It can take its toll on the community but it’s the immediate family that would be most affected. Family roles in addiction can greatly help in recovery if families were given the proper understanding to deal with the problem. Someone going through an addiction will need all the help and understanding that he can get in order to be able to recover completely.

If you would like to learn more about a families role in addiction please call Hawaii Island Recovery at 866-906-6911.