Addiction is widely understood as a family disease. An Al-Anon group is a support-style fellowship based on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Members are typically the family members and close friends of someone who struggles with an alcohol use disorder. The support of others experiencing the challenges of a loved one in the throes of addiction helps members learn strategies, become empowered to cope with challenges, and change habits that do not serve them or their loved one.
If you want to learn more about how you can support your loved one in recovery by participating in Al-Anon as well as a family therapy program, reach out to TruHealing Centers. We are here to help, so contact us by calling [Direct] or completing our online form. Either way, you will be connected with a compassionate and knowledgeable staff person who is ready to answer your questions.
Family Support for Family Recovery
The truth is that recovery heals the whole family. What better way for family members to support positive outcomes than to be part of the process and the solution? In most cases, people share one defining question – “How can we help our addicted loved one?”
If only the desire to do good was enough to understand how to go about it. In this case, doing the right thing can be very complicated because addiction is a complex problem. In Al-Anon, you can learn how to:
- Cope with your loved one’s drinking
- Keep yourself safe from fall-out while being supportive
- Stop enabling dangerous behaviors your loved one engages in
- Change your own behaviors in ways that positively shift family dynamics
- Acknowledge how your actions and those of your addicted loved one may work in sync to exacerbate rather than minimize issues
- Develop healthier responses to the many challenges of being in a family with addiction
- Feel supported as you deal with your own grief, frustration, and anger
- Embrace Al-Anon’s “one day at a time” philosophy that helps simplify your response to a complex problem
When someone with a substance use disorder successfully embarks on the recovery journey, they are not the only ones to heal. By definition, addiction recovery is family recovery.
Family Therapy Program
Recovery treatment is always best when it involves a multi-faceted program planned and carried out through a collaboration of participants, from medical professionals, therapists, and addiction specialists to wellness practitioners, friends, and family. Research indicates that long-term success is greater among people with addiction if their recovery program includes support from family who are in a program like Al-Anon.
In family therapy, undertaken with a professional counselor by family members as well as the person with the addiction, issues that may be addressed include:
- How to unlearn the destructive behaviors that have developed within a family system made dysfunctional by addiction
- Education about the facts of addiction
- The reunification of a fragmented family
- Healing everyone in the family as they process and recover from past frightening or traumatizing experiences
- Forging new ways to communicate honestly, without defensiveness or anger
- New skills and strategies for family members to help their loved ones on the path to recovery
Even though this process can be painful and difficult at times, the benefits are profound. The fact that you and others in the family are actively participating in Al-Anon and family therapy has a powerful effect on your addicted loved one. Witnessing your investment in their wellness and recovery inspires them. As a result, their motivation to do the work and stay the course grows and strengthens.
Repair Damaged Relationships with Help from TruHealing Centers
Family support is an important key to recovery. At TruHealing Centers, we acknowledge that and incorporate family therapy and healing into our entire range of addiction treatment program offerings. We look forward to hearing from you to discuss family therapy as part of recovery, Al-Anon, and other ways family members can make an enormous difference in the healing of their loved one. Simply fill out our online form or call [Direct] today.