Once an addict enters rehab, they know they are in a place where they will receive support and resources to help fight their substance abuse problem and reach a lasting recovery. But for the addict’s family, it can be difficult at this point. They had to watch their loved one struggle with addiction and possibly accumulate their own emotional scars but now feel they have nowhere to turn for help themselves. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
It is possible for such families to get the help they need if they know where to turn. Finding support in resources and communities for families affected by addiction is possible.
Most people know about the types of support recovering addict’s can depend on after rehab. Support groups, therapies and other resources are out there to help them maintain their newfound sobriety and keep their recovery going.
But what about the families? The family of a recovering addict may have undergone their own struggles in trying to get their loved one help, may have seen their loved one at their worst and now don’t know who to talk to or where to get help for their own psychological and emotional struggles from that time.
They will likely hesitate to talk to the recovering addict about it. The recovering addict, after all, is dealing with their ongoing battle to maintain sobriety and stay away from triggers and cravings. Their loved ones don’t want to add to their burden by unloading their emotional baggage on them at this point.
Yet where else can they turn? Their own friends may not understand their concerns, having not dealt with addiction in their own family. And it’s not the sort of personal pain you can just unload at the water cooler during a break at work.
But there’s no need to feel alone. Other families have dealt with this struggle and overcome, and you can too, with their help.
There are resources and communities available for such families, many of them offered by the same rehab facilities that treat addicts. Support groups for family members of addicts can address the struggles of family members who experience addiction secondhand through a loved one’s struggles. Parents, spouses, children, all of them can find groups of their peers who also experienced this struggle and can share their stories and listen to yours.
At Good Landing Recovery, treating substance abuse and helping addict’s reach recovery is the primary goal, but there are resources devoted to the family members of patients, too. There, therapists can help guide group sessions to help the relatives of addicts find their own healing for emotional scars and challenges.
Addiction is a terrible ordeal, and it doesn’t just affect the addict, but all those around them. Yet there’s no reason to leave everyone else in the lurch when the addict begins to receive help for their addiction.