Drug addiction can take an incredible toll on the family unit when a parent, child or spouse suffers from addiction. Over time, drug addiction can lead to a host of behaviors that erode trust within bonds between family members, causing disagreements to escalate to discordant or even abusive levels. Parents can experience the emotional loss of their children, as personality changes, mood swings and compulsive behaviors accompany the formation of drug addiction. Emotional closeness and even physical intimacy in marriages and relationships can even disappear, as spouses turn to drugs instead of to each other when life challenges appear. Fortunately, professional drug addiction rehabilitation centers provide expertise in the healing of family bonds during drug addiction recovery, strengthening trust, restoring healthy boundaries and healing underlying issues that may contribute to drug addiction’s pull.
Family Counseling Sessions at Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Centers
Many problems and issues that arise during addiction often do not receive an opportunity for full discussion or resolution until sobriety is reached. Engaging in family counseling during a stay at a drug addiction rehabilitation center provides you with the opportunity to establish positive ways of communication and interaction with other members of the family unit. New perspectives can be established through therapy, with mediation and insight provided by clinical therapists. Childhood resentments and long-standing wounds can be addressed and healed, while miscommunications and erroneous assumptions can reach points of clarification and peace.
Addiction Awareness and Education at Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Centers
Many of the interpersonal issues arising from a period of drug addiction require an understanding of addictive cycles in order to understand, empathize properly with and resolve. Often, patients at drug addiction rehabilitation centers – as well as their family members – need insight in order to fully address patterns of codependency, enabling and denial, among other addiction-centered dynamics.
Addiction awareness can be built through the education of family members, assisting in the removal of blame, future sensitivity to potential pitfalls, and the establishment of healthy boundaries. Families and patients can become educated in the multifaceted issues surrounding addiction, including the chemical interactions, genetic components, psychological issues and emotional needs that addicted individuals might face in recovery.
Couples Counseling at Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Centers
Additionally, the assistance of a trained couples’ counselor can help marital partners increase expression, build partnership and restore intimacy between them. Couples can safely address fears, insecurities, communication differences, past hurts and negative dynamics with the professional help and mediation of a trained couples’ counselor. Spouses and partners can learn to forge new coping mechanisms, enabling them to look towards a sober future by working together. Partners will learn how to increase understanding of each other’s needs, use anger as a positive force for change, take personal responsibility within the boundaries of the relationship and rebuild trust in the aftermath of drug addiction.
Environment and Transitional Planning at Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Centers
Another form of family-oriented counseling provided by drug addiction rehabilitation centers is transitional planning – a primary form of aftercare offered by residential programs. Transitional planning takes into account home environment, scheduling, daily routines, occupational responsibilities and interpersonal dynamics, in order to best position the patient for a sober future. By assessing family roles, drug addiction triggers and environmental factors, aftercare specialists can encourage positive changes in the home that can help reinforce the patient’s newly formed sobriety.
