Families Need Recovery when affected by Substance Abuse - Reach Recovery

Awareness video by www.ReachRecovery.org
A major proponent to raising awareness is to educate family members for their own need of recovery. Since family members tend to focus all their energy and effort on the person with a chemical addiction such as alcoholism, the family members usually neglect their own needs. In turn, they relinquish control without realizing it and begin to form behaviors of codependency.

ARE FAMILY MEMBERS AFFECTED BY SUBSTANCE ABUSE & ALCOHOLISM?
Every addict significantly affects an average of 7 people, mainly family members, creating an unhealthy family environment. A missing ingredient in these families is BALANCE. The whole family focuses on the sickest member (the addict), who exercises power to control the emotional, financial, and spiritual climate of the family.

Typically, in healthy families, no one person is center stage, rather attention is given to the need of each member -- a healthy giving/receiving.

WHY IS IT UNHEALTHY FOR EVERY MEMBER TO FOCUS ON THE ADDICT?
It is unhealthy for every member of the family to focus on the addict because it Relinquishes CONTROL of their own lives, they become CODEPENDENT, and establish ENABLING behaviors, in which every family member becomes SICK too.

HAS FAMILY RECOVERY BEEN EFFECTIVE? By the family member seeking help and applying recovery principles in their own lives, the addict or alcoholic must adjust as well due to the boundaries set and expectations established.