Recovery can’t be accomplished alone, and many times involving family in recovery is important because it can get to the root of someone’s addiction, and there’s also the opportunity to help the entire family, along with the person suffering from addiction.
Addiction can thrive in a dysfunctional family, and if you have a parent who suffers from addiction, you run the risk of following in their footsteps.
As Drugabuse.gov reports, addiction can run in families because “some people have mistakes in their genes that make them more likely to get addicted….It’s like having a greater chance of getting certain kinds of cancer because one of your parents had it.”
This report also mentions that having a parent suffering from addiction can make other members of the family think abusing drugs is okay. “Addiction causes a lot of problems in the house, and children don’t get the care or attention they need. Children who don’t feel loved have a greater chance of using drugs and becoming addicted. It can happen whether the family is rich, poor, or in between.”
Organizations like Al-Anon help families who have a member suffering from addiction, and how to cope when you have a family member who needs to get sober.
Megan Busch, the president of North Dakota Addiction Counselors Association, told Public News Service that the behaviors that those suffering from addiction “put into the home and onto their family members is intense, and we consider addiction a family disorder because not only is that individual sickening themselves, typically the family is becoming sick as well. When we get that client in and we can help them recover, we also want to help the family recover.”