The Family In Recovery

Family members may breathe a collective sigh of relief when a loved one enters primary treatment for alcohol or chemical dependency.

The journey towards recovery has just begun, and at Hanley Center it may include addressing the recovery of the family, with an educational emphasis on establishing healthy family systems. Alcoholism and drug dependency is a disease that affects relationship dynamics inside and outside the family. A Center for Family Recovery core initiative at Hanley Center is the educationally-based Weekend Family Program. The comprehensive three-day group experience in a non-confrontational, carefrontational setting is comprised of family members over age14 and clients who are not related. To be eligible, clients must demonstrate physical and emotional stability and responsibility for their recovery.

The non-related groups of clients and family members create a safe environment where people feel free to express their hopes, fears, experiences, frustrations and concerns. There is also time for clients and their families to visit and relax. The Weekend Family Program addresses both broad and specific factors surrounding addiction and the family. What is chemical dependency and the disease of addiction and how does it become a family disease? What are the symptoms and progression? Meditation, videos, multi-media presentations, and group discussions/exercises address such subjects as enabling and detachment, boundaries, medical aspects of codependency, relapse as a process for both addicts and family, children and denial, family systems and roles, and 12-Step family recovery.

For families who need to address issues together in therapy, a fourth day (Monday) in the Extended Family Program may be recommended by the care team. This is particularly relevant for clients and their significant others who may need help in resolving relationship blocks, for example. Family conferences are scheduled during the weekend program to review treatment progress, continuing care recommendations and discharge plans. Couples or clients and other loved ones may also participate in further counseling through Hanley Centers Mental Health Services. A group therapy program for co-dependency, the Circle of Intervention, is offered by Hanley-Center as well.

Active addiction can affect both the addict and family members physically, emotionally and mentally, according to M.K. ORegan, Supervisor of Hanleys Family Program. Most spouses of alcoholics, for example, dont realize that anxiety and emotional upsets can cause a plethora of psychosomatic illnesses. Spouses of older addicts are especially at risk for strokes, hypertension, spastic colon, gastritis, and other diseases. Spouses or significant others in codependent relationships are generally unaware of their unhealthy relationship dynamics. An active alcoholic struggles to keep control and the illusion of security he or she perceives in her alcoholic behavior, but the addiction controls everything. The coalcoholic also tries to keep control, striving to save the partner, keep peace at home and keep up appearances. Children dont feel safe in this environment, and older children may escape while others become caretakers or experience denial. The facade crashes when parents surrender to the realization that they are not in control and treatment/abstinence begins.

Of course, all is not instantly fine once the alcoholic stops drinking or begins treatment. Reaching outside the family for a healthy support system is crucial during this time, when adult family members begin to take steps in making their own personal changes. Organizations like AA and Al-Anon can be life rafts in a storm, when the primary focus in early recovery is to abstain, and the co-dependent feels anxious as she searches for new behaviors to replace enabling ones.

Hanley Center is a Premier Provider of Addiction Treatment, Prevention and Education located in beautiful West Pam Beach Florida. Hanley Center's treatment model is both age and gender specific. Visit http://www.hanleycenter.org to request a free brochure. Call 1-800-444-7008 for admission information.

Why Patients Who Are Dependent On Prescription Pain Killers Should Consider At Home Recovery
This article is intended for patients battling dependence on pain killers Why patients who are dependent on prescription pain killers should consider...

Choosing a Drug Rehab Program in Maryland
Drug Rehab Programs in MarylandThere are hundreds upon hundreds of drug rehab programs in Maryland that claim they provide the most effective addictio...

Best Drug and Alcohol Rehab Program
The best drug and alcohol rehab program is the program that best addresses your specific needs. Addiction is an individual and personal disease. Rehab...

Dealing With Addiction in the Family
Addiction can be defined as a family disease. It is a fact that the entire family suffers with the addict. This is the reason that professionals consi...

Fired - Complex-Component of Your Recovery-Manner in Which Lay-Off Was Handled
Steps Toward a Healthy, Total Recovery from "Lay-Off Day"Was it an instant message requesting your presence in HR immediately? Or did an armed securit...

What Are the Options for Alcohol Addiction Recovery?
You have many options available to you on your path to alcohol addiction recovery. There are traditional treatment programs and aftercare services. Ho...

The Effects Of Alcohol Abuse Can Be Dramatic And If Left Unchecked Life Shattering
The pressures of life presents us all with trials and tribulations that we need to overcome.. Unfortunately too many of us are now turning to what is ...

Drug Rehab Chronicles
Seven years of recovery is a tough road to travel. Kim loves the life she lives now, but this sentiment certainly didn't always ring true. "I had it a...

Drug Addiction Recovery - Believe You Can!
Does anyone say as a child they would like to grow up to be an addict one day? No one wants that type of life but millions of people find themselves s...

Drug Rehab, Recovery and the Pink Cloud
Is it a myth or reality, fact or fiction? The pink cloud is an experience common to almost everyone that seeks recovery from drug addiction or alcohol...

Drug Abuse Treatment Center - Making The Right Choice
Choosing a drug abuse treatment center is an important decision. Not just another hospital treating a disease, the drug abuse treatment center is an ...

How to Choose Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment
In today's world, the effects of alcohol and drug addiction on the individual are great and the cumulative effects on our society are staggering. It h...

Addiction Recovery Tools for Drug Abuse Control
A very important factor for addiction recovery is being able to have tools for dealing with difficult situations, rather than going into an escape rou...

Drug Rehab for Women - Do Women Need Different Therapies?
The drug rehab business is undoubtedly a for profit business, and as such when someone sees a marketing niche as yet unfilled. You can bet they're goi...

The Three Secrets Of Entering Alcohol Addiction Recovery
For successful alcohol addiction recovery, three factors must come together simultaneously. Addiction recovery is amazingly complex subject that just...