The Canyon

When drug addiction hits a family, everyone goes into survival mode.  There’s a glaring problem, but no one seems to know how to make it better.  Everything they do is to either try to fix the problem or just live with it.  And unless the addict goes to drug treatment or alcohol rehab, things are likely to be rough for a long while. Here’s a review of some things families do when they have to live with drug addiction.

Family Members Change Roles To Deal With Drug Addict

When someone develops a drug addiction, their surrounding family members often adjust their roles to compensate for the change.  For example, if one of the parents becomes addicted, the other parent will often adjust to make up for the loss of another adult.  Sometimes another child (often the oldest) will take on a parentified role.

If a child develops an addiction, one or both of the parents may become extra focused on them.  This extra attention may mean the other children (or parent) may need to fend for themselves more.

Family Members Develop Coping Skills

Coping skills can range from healthy and uplifting to unhealthy and destructive.  The purpose of coping skills is to help a person get through something difficult.  Some people will go inward to deal with the drug addict or alcoholic in their home.  They may develop a fantasy world as a retreat or simply keep to themselves more.  Others may throw themselves into their work or school activities.  While these examples aren’t specifically damaging behaviors, they can be harmful if they become extreme.

Unfortunately, some family members end up using coping skills that are truly harmful.  They develop angry aggressive behaviors, start doing illegal or immoral things like stealing or cheating on their spouse.  Others may turn to drugs and alcohol themselves, hoping to drown their misery and frustration with their family.

Family Members Learn to Get Their Needs Met

Despite their adjustments and accommodations for the addict, all family members have needs.  Eventually, each family member will find a way to get them met, even if it means they create more problems along the way.  If a spouse is being neglected because of this, they may eventually stray from the marriage to find companionship.

When one of the children is addicted, another one may start acting out in destructive ways or revert to more childish dependent behaviors.  Even though everyone may be trying to hang on to the skeleton of their family, some families self destruct in this situation.  Too much pain and destruction for everything to stay together.

Drug Rehab May Save A Family

Drug addiction or alcoholism can cause a family to spin out of control.  Drug rehab can help if that person decides to take that first step.  Since drug addiction obviously affects more than just the addict, drug rehabs usually have family programs along with their addiction treatment.  This helps the entire family group face and cope with the realities of drug addiction.  If your family is affected by drug addiction or alcoholism, contact your local drug rehab center today and find out more.  Your family doesn’t have to suffer anymore because of an untreated addiction.

Posted in News
Add your comment

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to a few important ways to reduce your addiction relapse risk.  Sobriety isn’t necessarily forever, and every recovering addict needs to keep a good sobriety plan in place.  Take a look at a few more methods and reasons for this.

Know Your Drug Addiction Triggers

Know thyself.  This is one of the most challenging yet most important parts of staying sober.  You may want to hide from those ugly parts of your past or about your personality.  But if you don’t acknowledge the things that trigger your cravings or desire to cover your feelings, you may get yourself into trouble.

Knowing your triggers can help you head off potential problems.  Relapse temptations are so much easier to avoid than they are to manage.  Instead of fighting of cravings and being emotionally distraught because you went to visit an old drinking friend, you can set a boundary for yourself because you know it is better for you.  Not easy to do, but worth it to keep your sobriety intact for another day.

Review and Revise Your Relapse Prevention Plan

Your relapse prevention plan should change and evolve as you do.  Life happens, and when it does you need to be sure your plan can keep up with you.  If you’ve experienced a death in the family, moved to a new community, changed jobs, or had any sort of relapse issue (even a small one), you may need to make some adjustments in order to keep your stress levels down.

If it’s been several months or years since you’ve even reviewed your plan, it’s probably time to do it again.  Just because you check it out doesn’t mean you have to make a change.  If what you have still makes sense and targets the right triggers and needs, then you are probably in good shape.  If not, have someone help you or at least look over your changes.

Consider The Possibility Of Going Back to Drug Rehab

You may cringe at the thought of going back to drug rehab.  Maybe you won’t ever need to do it.  But it’s a fair chance that at least some people who have been through drug rehab once will relapse to the point where they may need it again.

If you do relapse and it seems beyond your control, going back to drug rehab can really make a difference.  Trying to gut it out on your own because of your pride can sink even deeper into relapse.  With drug addiction, there is no guarantee with sobriety.  In the end, your quality of life is what matters the most.

Preventing Addiction Relapse Is Daily Work

It takes daily effort to stay sober.  Many people who have been sober for years still know exactly how long they have been sober.  With a current relapse prevention plan, you make ongoing sobriety so much more attainable and manageable for yourself.

Posted in News
Add your comment

photo credit: [JO]² - Immortal Lens -( Youssef Hanna )

Drug addiction does so many bad things to people.  It destroys relationships, it disrupts careers, it erodes personal health, and it perpetuates itself unless someone stops it.  Drug addiction is like a runaway train bent on destruction.  People don’t head towards drug addiction because they welcome these problems.  They are just trying to cope.

Overwhelming Life Change and Alcoholism

You thought life was cruising along in a good direction, you felt confident and ready for more challenges.  Then suddenly, everything changed.  You were diagnosed with a disease or restrictive health condition.  You had a crippling car accident.  Your spouse died.  Whatever happened, your life was changed forever.  All you want to do is get things back to the way they used to be when life was good and you were confident.  Now, you can’t accept the reality very well and you aren’t sure how you can keep going on like this.

If this scenario seems too familiar, then you understand desperation and disbelief threaded together like an unbreakable rope tied around you.  You are either going to have the life squeezed out of you, or you are going to do something to cope with it.  One way to manage your feelings is by using drugs and alcohol.  Only problem is that your emotional pain is like endless fuel for a drug or alcohol addiction.  Unless you start drug treatment or alcohol rehab, an addiction will keep burning until there’s nothing left.

Empty Family Life and Childhood Drug Abuse

Kids who get hooked up with drugs are often looking for some kind of distraction.  Sometimes they innocently try drugs and don’t realize the consequences.  But in many cases, they have holes in their lives or pain in their heart.  Kids without clear guidelines and positive past times will often find themselves going along with their more daring peers.

Believe it or not, kids feel more secure and cared for when they have more boundaries and limits.  Too much freedom leaves kids feeling less connected and more conflicted.  What do they have to lose by trying marijuana, hard liquor, or even some cocaine.  If it feels good and they can bond with their friends through drug use, they can get by with a rough family situation.

Drug Rehab Can Pull You Out Of The Hole

A drug addiction is a serious thing, and comprehensive drug treatment is the best way to manage it.  Regardless of your reasons, coping by using drugs and alcohol just creates more problems.  You can learn so many healthy ways of coping with stress and rough emotions at drug rehab.  More than that, you can rebuild your life and learn to live with the ups and downs.  You don’t have to turn to drugs and alcohol to do that.

Posted in News
Add your comment