Addiction rehabilitation and family dynamics

When a member of a family has been struggling with addiction, the entire family dynamic becomes deeply intertwined with the challenges and traumas that accompany it. Over time, the roles, communication patterns, and even coping mechanisms of the family unit can become distorted.

Questions arise around the differences between helping and supporting, vs enabling and colluding. Answering these questions can be detrimental to the continued recovery of the individual and what the family system will look like.

On some level, when an individual goes into addiction rehabilitation and treatment for co-occurring mental health challenges, the whole family is forced to pause and reflect and see how they also need to change, or what they can tolerate moving forward. Caring for a person in active addiction can be draining and overwhelming and so during recovery, the family then has to redefine its composition and role.

For genuine, lasting recovery, it’s not enough to focus solely on the individual; the family system must also heal. The family must also think how to move forward, and how they want the future to look. The hardest thing for families is how to continue to hold on to hope, hope for a better future without the difficulties that active addiction can cause.

At Harbor, we take a unified approach, the family is an integral part of addiction rehabilitation. Whether this looks like family mediation, support, or family therapy, by addressing and resolving these dynamics, we help families shift from dysfunction to harmony. We guide families to understand that healing is about collaboration and understanding, without assigning blame. Whether struggling with issues like anxiety, depression, or trauma related to years of living with addiction; family members find support, insight, and a path forward. We can also offer individual sessions for family members most affect.

Our aftercare planning is all about how to integrate in the world, with the family dynamics. Because when the family heals together, the chances of long-term recovery for each member greatly improve.

Find out more: https://harborlondon.com/treatment/therapies/family-systems/