Drug addiction does not only impact the user, it has a negative impact on all of those involved and deeply impacts family. Family member interactions with the addict can equate to aggravation, desperation, and isolation. Because of the deep impact that addiction has on relationships and on the family as a whole, family counseling is recommended to help foster recovery of the entire support system.
Often times, family counseling will revolve around determining the factors and influence that the loved ones have on the addict’s ability to maintain his or her drug abuse. This is because it is often the family that supports and essentially feeds the addiction through actions such as:
- paying bills for the addict
- giving money loans
- allowing the addict in their homes despite the fact that the addict is stealing from them
- providing housing, shelter or food for the addict
- otherwise supporting the addict
Family counseling is important because there are often a number of dysfunctional areas of the family which must be adjusted and healed in order to prevent these factors from influencing the addict. There are often cases in which a recovering addict’s goals are impeded by family members who do not even realize that they are doing wrong—this is why family counseling is so important.
How Family Counseling Helps
The family can benefit as a whole from the teaching and communication that is provided in family counseling. There is also great benefit in the education and support that the family receives from this method of teaching. Family counseling helps by:
- helping the family to understand the need for change
- focusing on teaching the family what to change and how to adjust
- testing patterns of behavior before using these skills at home in real situations
- educating family members on the way that the family support system works and the roles of each family member
- exploiting the strengths of each family member to build a stronger support system
- addressing the harmful effects that substance abuse has had on each individual member of the family
Together, these methods are what makes family counseling one of the most effective methods of counseling in drug rehab. Although family counseling is not required in every case of addiction treatment, in those cases in which the addict lives with family, is supported by family or is very close to family, this treatment can do great wonders for the overall recovery of the patient and of the family support system.