When someone is struggling with addiction, the disease impacts the entire family system. It causes a ripple effect, like throwing a stone into a quiet pond.
Addiction puts family members under a great deal of stress, disrupting routines and causing fractures in relationships. No matter how hard a person tries, their addiction eventually causes “ripples” in the lives of those who love them the most.
The addiction care specialists at SaVida Health know this all too well. Having personally worked with hundreds of families as their loved one battles addiction, we’ve compiled this comprehensive resource to help you with managing the emotions and hardships.
Read on to discover all you can about addiction and how to combat it as a family.
Key Takeaways
- How does addiction affect the family? Addiction creates a ripple effect throughout the entire family system, placing members under significant stress and causing disruptions to routines, relationships, finances, and social lives.
- How does addiction impact children? When a parent or caregiver struggles with addiction, children are deeply affected. Common warning signs include difficulty concentrating, school avoidance, behavioral issues, social isolation, early substance use, and taking on adult responsibilities before they are ready.
- What are the signs of opioid, alcohol, or stimulant addiction? Warning signs include poor grooming, weight changes, mood swings, social withdrawal, memory loss, and declining performance at work or school.
- What are co-occurring disorders? Co-occurring disorders, also known as dual diagnoses, refer to the presence of both a substance use disorder and a mental health condition.
- The role of family in addiction recovery? Attending family counseling, joining support groups, removing substances from the home, and maintaining a positive, educated approach to recovery can make a meaningful difference.
The Development of Addiction
In order to understand your family member’s situation and how to deal with it, it is first essential to know how an addiction can develop.
Addiction does not follow a single path, and the factors that contribute to it are unique to each individual.
Common contributing factors can include:
- Genetics
- Mental health conditions, stress, or trauma
- Easy access to substances or gambling
- Cultural norms and environment
Some people may experiment with a substance without any noticeable issues. Over time, however, a dependency can begin to form, making it increasingly difficult to stop, even when the behavior is causing real harm.
When addictive behaviors are repeated, the brain begins to adapt and change. Because the brain is constantly learning, it registers these activities as sources of intense pleasure and begins to anticipate that feeling.
As a result of these neurological changes:
- The addictive behavior starts to take priority over other areas of life
- Greater frequency or intensity is needed to achieve the same effect
- Stopping becomes increasingly difficult, even when the desire to quit is there
The brain essentially rewires itself to seek out and prioritize the addictive activity, reinforcing the message that the behavior should be repeated. It is important to note that not everyone who uses substances will develop an addiction, but the progression from occasional use to dependency can happen to anyone.
Impact of Addiction on Family Relationships & Dynamics
Addiction has the power to undermine even the strongest of loving relationships and affect family members on every level: emotional, psychological, financial, and social.
Common examples include:
- A parent’s constant need to drink alcohol or use substances like opioids can lead to child neglect or abuse.
- The use of alcohol and drugs can lead to a family’s financial hardship or poverty.
- The shame of a son or daughter’s intoxicated behaviors can lead to social isolation and the avoidance of potentially judgmental friends or relatives.
- Children are often forced to step into a parental role for parents who can no longer care for their younger siblings.
- Spouses hide their substance use from husbands or wives, lying about their actions or engaging in harmful behaviors to prevent being exposed.
- Parents go to great lengths to “rescue” an addicted son or daughter from addiction, only to experience heartache when the child returns to active substance use.
Impact of Addiction on Children
Addiction within a family touches everyone, but its effect on children can be especially deep and lasting.
Children depend on their parents or caregivers to feel safe, loved, and protected. Addiction can quietly erode this foundation, making it harder for children to feel the security they need to grow and thrive.
Signs a Child May Be Struggling
The bond between a child and their parent shapes how they feel, think, and connect with others throughout their entire life.
When addiction is present in the home, children often carry feelings of worry, sadness, guilt, or shame, which they may struggle to put into words or share with others.
Over time, this emotional weight can show up as:
- Difficulty concentrating or staying focused
- Skipping school or withdrawing academically
- Acting out or displaying behavioral challenges
- Feeling isolated or alone
- Going out of their way to please others
- Experimenting with substances at an early age
- Assuming adult-level responsibilities too soon
Understanding Opioid,Alcohol, and Stimulant Addiction
If you are concerned a loved one may be addicted to opioids(heroin, fentanyl, etc.), alcohol, or stimulants(cocaine, methamphetamine), understanding the nature of addiction is extremely important.
In the past, experts believed addiction occurred when someone needed a substance in order to function without suffering withdrawal.
Today, however, experts like the National Institute on Drug Abuse understand addiction is both a complex brain disorder and a mental illness that is defined as a “chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking, continued use despite harmful consequences, and long-lasting changes in the brain.
Signs of Opioid,Alcohol, or Stimulant Abuse
The following checklist can help family members and loved ones identify the potential signs of addiction. The degree of intensity for each sign depends on how long a person has been misusing opioids, alcohol, or stimulants.
Physical Health or Appearance:
- Poor grooming or disheveled clothing
- Unwanted weight loss or gain
- Pale, cool skin
- Dilated pupils
- Nausea, diarrhea, vomiting
- Puffiness or bloating
- Tremors
- Drowsiness at inappropriate times of day
Mood or Behavior:
- Irritability
- Mood swings
- Unprovoked outbursts of anger
- Sadness or crying
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Irrational laughter
- Social isolation
Psychological Change:
- Confusion
- Unexplained memory loss
- Paranoia
- Delusional thinking
- Hallucinations
Employment or Educational Status:
- Consistent absence at work or school
- Poor or declining performance at work
- Job termination
- Decline in grades at school
- Loss of interest in favorite school activities
Co-Occurring Disorders
It is important to mention that opioid, alcohol, or stimulant addiction is rarely a person’s only mental health issue.
For those who struggle with both substance abuse disorder and mental illness (depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder etc.), the diagnosis is called a co-occurring disorder or dual diagnosis, which SaVida addiction rehabilitation experts actively treat.
According to reports published in the Journal of the American Medical Association:
- Approximately 50 percent of all people with severe mental disorders are affected by substance abuse.
- Roughly 37 percent of alcohol abusers and 53 percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness.
- Of all people diagnosed with mental illness, 29 percent also abuse either alcohol or drugs.
“A lot of programs will try to treat either the mental health disorder first, or drug addiction first, but you can’t do that successfully. You have to treat both simultaneously,” according to Dr. John Tsuang, Clinical Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Co-occurring disorders require specialized treatment, so it is important for patients and family members to seek out providers who are qualified to treat both areas.
The Family’s Role in Recovery
According to the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, family involvement in the recovery process is one of the most significant factors in predicting long-term abstinence after addiction treatment.
Some of the actions you can take to promote a loved one’s long-term recovery from opioids, alcohol, and stimulants include:
- Encourage your loved ones to seek rehabilitation. While you can’t force them into treatment, words of encouragement can help them to realize they can overcome addiction.
- Attend family addiction counseling sessions as recommended by your loved one’s treatment team.
- Support and uplift your loved one by maintaining a positive attitude about their recovery.
- Educate yourself about substance misuse, addiction, and recovery.
- Address any conflicts, emotional roadblocks, or resentments that could prevent a sober environment at home.
- Remove all opioids and/or alcohol from the home, along with making other changes recommended by your loved one’s treatment team.
- Take part in family support groups, workshops, and therapeutic activities as your loved one progresses through a medication-assisted treatment
Family members should be aware that painful issues and uncomfortable feelings often make their way to the surface during counseling. While it can be painful to address these issues in the moment, it’s possible to reach a long-term resolution when the family is willing to wholeheartedly participate in the therapeutic process.
Keep this in mind throughout your loved one’s recovery journey, especially during difficult times: working through the feelings of discomfort and pain that arise in therapy can ultimately lead to stronger, healthier, and more trusting relationships within the family.
Get Addiction Recovery Support for the Whole Family
At SaVida Health, we understand addiction is a disease that affects the whole family. To be successful in recovery, it is essential to include the entire family, not just the addict.
Call SaVida Health at (833) 356-4080 or click here to learn more about family addiction, medication-assisted addiction treatment for addiction, and the overall recovery process.
SaVida Health addiction treatment centers also offer behavioral counseling, dual-diagnosis treatment for coinciding addictions and mental health conditions, and accept Medicaid, Medicare, and most private insurance plans, including Aetna, Cigna, and Humana.
SaVida has a multitude of helpful substance abuse rehab clinics for your recovery needs in the following states. Find the rehab facility closest to you!
- Outpatient Substance Abuse Recovery Centers in Delaware
- Maine Addiction Recovery Centers
- Substance Abuse Rehabilitation in Massachusetts
- New Hampshire Addiction Treatment Facilities
- Substance Use Disorder Treatment in Vermont
- Addiction Rehab Clinics in Virginia
- Tennessee Addiction Recovery Facilities
Related Addiction Recovery Blogs:
- Debunking Common Addiction Myths
- Telehealth for Addiction Treatment
- Managing Life Post-Addiction Recovery
- What SaVida Patients Are Saying
- Understanding Your Unique Recovery Journey
- Will Suboxone Appear on a Drug Test?
Sources:
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/addiction-in-the-family.aspx