Watching someone you love struggle with an addiction is devastating and draining. The addiction can make your family member behave in ways that are completely out of character. You may be dealing with intense feelings of anger, frustration, and anxiety in addition to worries about your loved one’s recovery.
Addiction affects the entire family, whether a parent is abusing prescription opioids or a spouse has developed an addiction to illegal street drugs. To help heal fractured relationships, BARC offers a family program that includes education about the disease of addiction as well as suggestions for how family members can practice self-care while providing their loved ones with the support they need to stay clean and sober.
It’s also about rebuilding relationships that have been damaged in the course of the addiction. At BARC, we understand that your entire family needs support. We offer a comprehensive family program for spouses, parents, and adult children of clients seeking treatment for drug or alcohol addiction.
Our family program emphasizes both education and support. Education is provided about the effects of addiction on key brain circuits and how, in recovery, those brain circuits can be re-wired. This concept of rewiring the brain is not only useful and practical…it is also incredibly hopeful.
Emotional support is also a key component of our family program. Knowing that you are not alone is a powerful and comforting thought you can experience by participating in your loved one’s recovery. Family therapy, educational workshops, and family groups provide you with the opportunity to learn and support your loved one in finding new ways to have healthier relationships.
Here are five important ways that Family Systems Therapy can be applied to recovery: