The importance of family involvement cannot be overlooked in an individual’s recovery process as it is a crucial component for healing. Often, families have torn apart because of the consequences of addiction or mental health. When one family member is spiraling out of control due to substance use or mental health symptoms, the rest of the family is consumed with fear for their loved one’s health and safety. Admitting that there is a problem within your family is difficult, especially if you are in denial, aren’t sure how to fix it, or don’t want to stir up any conflict for fear of making matters worse. However, because addiction and mental health affect everyone in the family, it’s essential for the family to be involved in the recovery process.
How the Family Can Help
Family members and loved ones of those dealing with addiction or mental health play essential roles. As a family member, individuals can help a loved one by:
- Intervening in a crisis
- Finding treatment options and helping them get treatment
- Maintaining health records and providing them to treatment providers as necessary
- Advocating for their needs and rights
- Helping them stick with their treatment and aftercare plans
Family members themselves can also benefit from taking part in the treatment process. They may receive education on addiction and learn healthy coping strategies and ways to be positive contributors to their loved one’s recovery efforts. Many treatment programs invite families into the treatment process through scheduled family visits, family classes, and even family therapy. When significant issues in the family improve, the recovering person may be more likely to stay in recovery, and other family members may be less likely to struggle with the same problems in the future.
The Benefits of Family Therapy
It can be highly beneficial for your family to engage in therapy. Having a treatment plan for the family healing process will allow your family to continue learning the necessary tools and coping strategies for the new family dynamic and how to manage challenges that may come up along the way. They can begin to sort out any negative emotions still lingering caused by your addiction or mental health. With the support and guidance of a qualified therapist and/or treatment professional, they will learn how to care for themselves and therefore be able to be strong for supporting your recovery.
Having a therapist or other professional teach your family about holding you accountable and establishing boundaries can also help you be successful in your recovery. You can ask them to accompany you to aftercare appointments or even ask them to drug test you weekly to have an extra layer of accountability. If you find yourself in a challenging situation that may be triggering, let your family know so that they can help you implement the tools you have learned.
Lower Risk of Relapse
Individuals with family support and involvement throughout their recovery may be at a lower risk of relapsing after treatment. This is because the family is often educated about addiction, its causes, triggers, and other essential factors that can help to navigate the recovery process. When involved, your family can be a reliable resource to support you as you begin your recovery journey. Those without this support typically have a higher risk of relapsing after treatment because they don’t have the extra source of accountability that the family can provide. Therefore, they may be more likely to fall back into old behaviors and habits, possibly leading them to relapse. For most of us, recovery is our family, and we have each others’ backs no matter what.
The Gift of Hope
When your family is taking an active role in your recovery, it shows you that they are supportive and loving, providing you with the courage and strength to continue the recovery process even when it can feel uncomfortable and challenging. This type of encouragement can give you the hope that healing is possible and that your family is a part of your support network. As your family learns more about how they can help and support you, recovery can feel more tangible.
Mending the Hurt
The positive effect of family involvement in the recovery process can help mend the ties within your family that may have been broken during your trademarked experiences (i.e., addiction, bipolar, depression, or other mental health concerns). Healing the hurt can be the key to your long-term recovery. The impact of negative behaviors and their consequences that may have occurred during active addiction or mental health crises can easily tear families apart. Behaviors like acting out, lying, stealing, and others may have caused your family to feel a wide range of emotions such as anger, grief, depression, loss, rage, guilt, and more. Through family counseling and your family’s involvement in your recovery, the wounds that your addiction or mental health caused can slowly begin to heal.
Family plays a crucial role in recovery from addiction or mental health. Family and other loved ones can be a pillar of support for a person navigating life after addiction and mental health struggles. By finding resources such as family therapy, the hurt caused can be mended, and the family system can relearn how to act together once again. Family involvement in recovery is also shown to reduce the risk of relapse and give people recovering hope. At Rickard Elmore Treatment Strategies, our services support not just the individual with the initial concern. Our services support the entire system; family, friends, treatment placement, court cases, and much more. Our Treatment Planning Service is an imperative element to our client’s success during and after treatment. It proved unrivaled education that includes a variety of options that will be specialized to each specific situation. We also provide pre-intervention assessments, interventions, transformation recovery coaching, and psychedelic-assisted treatment. With Rickard Elmore, the entire family can transform their lives. For more information, call (877) 387-7197.