Family programs are a big part of addiction recovery. Your family is an essential factor in your life, and they can also be one of the main reasons you turned to drugs or alcohol in the first place. Whether it’s because you were trying to escape from your problems or got influenced by somebody else, there’s a high chance that your family is involved in some way. Even if you don’t think they had anything to do with your addiction, it might be worthwhile to give them a call and talk about addiction recovery.
Whether or not your family participates in the program depends on a couple of things. First, where you’re going for rehab – a private facility or a publicly-funded one – will determine whether your family needs to be involved. Secondly, what level of care you need is also a significant factor.
In many ways, participating in a family program can help both you and your loved ones come to terms with what happened and why it happened. It allows them to ask questions about addiction recovery that they might have been too shy to ask.
The first step would be assessing your drug use’s impact on those close to you. You can do this by talking to them about their feelings, how you made them feel, and what they think your next step should be in addiction recovery. Please look at our family therapy page for examples of open questions that might help you get the conversation going.
It helps if everybody’s mature about this process, though. That means avoiding accusatory language or making it personal when discussing the problem with your family members. If somebody has acted poorly because of the way you use drugs, you need to talk about it in ways that don’t blame anybody else. Having an adult conversation about addiction recovery will ensure that everybody starts on the right foot after getting clean from drugs or alcohol.
There are also certain things that We will expect your loved ones to do in the program. For example, they may be asked to sit through therapy sessions with you so that both of you can talk about how your drug use has affected them and what changes need to take place moving forward. This is necessary to build positive, healthy relationships based on communication and trust rather than secretive or dishonest behavior because of substance abuse. People who only began participating in family programs once their loved one got into treatment missed some precious opportunities. If anything, this teaches other people that addiction recovery does affect everybody close by.
Doing things like attending community meetings, completing workbooks, and participating in therapy sessions alongside your family builds a strong foundation for everybody to move forward.
However, there are many reasons why somebody would choose not to participate in an addiction recovery program with their family. Some people feel like the issue is theirs alone rather than something that affects everybody, whereas others might be too scared about what they’ll learn if they go through with it. Most people have good intentions and don’t want to burden their families with their problems.
Whatever the reason is, it doesn’t seem like participating in a family program will solve your addiction recovery woes if you don’t want or aren’t ready to do so. You could always talk to your counselor about other ways that your loved ones can get involved without attending sessions themselves, but this isn’t possible everywhere. If somebody has decided against getting help for themselves, then they’re unlikely to change their mind just because you want them to.
There are other ways to include your loved ones in addiction recovery without participating in a family program, too. For example, you might encourage them to attend community meetings or social events where everybody can work towards their own goals together as individuals. If somebody isn’t ready to go through with therapy sessions yet, they would like to write out their feelings about what has happened so far, just not necessarily read it aloud in front of everybody else.
It’s crucial to figure out what works for you and your family and find the right program to help you get there. Sometimes people go through addiction recovery on their own, while everybody is more comfortable sticking together throughout the entire process. You’ll find that some programs are more flexible about family involvement than others, whereas others might not offer anything at all. For further guidance, our counselors are available 24 hours a day—Call 844-639-8371 to speak to one of them now.