Substance Abuse Treatment in a Family Therapy Setting
Substance abuse is not just an individual problem. It affects whole families, so it makes strong sense to treat the entire family during rehab instead of just the user, even if it is a parent rather than a teen.
For a parent to discover that your teen has begun experimenting with drugs or alcohol is one of the worst imaginable challenges to have to face. Integrating the family into a treatment plan can do a lot more than just help your teen stop their substance abuse but can help repair fundamental problems in the family that might have impacted the decision of your child to experiment in the first place. If it is one of the parents who are abusing drugs, including the rest of your family into treatment can help restore parental authority and responsibility.
Regardless of which member in a family is using drugs, it is a symptom of a much larger problem inside the family itself. Naturally the immediate focus is on getting whoever it is that is suffering from substance abuse clean and away from future drug or alcohol use. The long-term goal of including all the children in a family struggling with a member who is using drugs is prevention: discouraging drug use from spreading to future generations.
By taking a group, family approach to treatment with a counselor there to moderate and help guide interactions so the member who has been abusing drugs doesnEUR(TM)t feel as though they are being ganged up on by everyone else. Problems are expressed and shared openly so misunderstandings can be intercepted immediately and worked through.
Studies show that if even one member of a family abuses drugs, no matter what member, the rest of the family is at higher risk of getting into substance abuse as well. On the other hand, healthy families are far less likely to have members involved in drugs or alcohol, even in the face of severe peer pressure. Additionally, if one child is successfully treated for substance abuse, it reduces the chances of their siblings following suit in experimenting with controlled substances. Finally, if a teen falls into substance abuse but gets help, they are less inclined to a myriad of adult issues associated with an early start in drug use: chronic unemployment, continued drug abuse and addiction, and criminal behavior.
Family therapy offers a lot of inherent benefits for treating substance abuse. The same sort of support offered through group therapy or 12-step program models is built in. At the same time interpersonal relationships that have been suffering can be addressed and mended without leaving it entirely on the person getting treatment to try and manage healing those outside of counseling sessions.
For a parent to discover that your teen has begun experimenting with drugs or alcohol is one of the worst imaginable challenges to have to face. Integrating the family into a treatment plan can do a lot more than just help your teen stop their substance abuse but can help repair fundamental problems in the family that might have impacted the decision of your child to experiment in the first place. If it is one of the parents who are abusing drugs, including the rest of your family into treatment can help restore parental authority and responsibility.
Regardless of which member in a family is using drugs, it is a symptom of a much larger problem inside the family itself. Naturally the immediate focus is on getting whoever it is that is suffering from substance abuse clean and away from future drug or alcohol use. The long-term goal of including all the children in a family struggling with a member who is using drugs is prevention: discouraging drug use from spreading to future generations.
By taking a group, family approach to treatment with a counselor there to moderate and help guide interactions so the member who has been abusing drugs doesnEUR(TM)t feel as though they are being ganged up on by everyone else. Problems are expressed and shared openly so misunderstandings can be intercepted immediately and worked through.
Studies show that if even one member of a family abuses drugs, no matter what member, the rest of the family is at higher risk of getting into substance abuse as well. On the other hand, healthy families are far less likely to have members involved in drugs or alcohol, even in the face of severe peer pressure. Additionally, if one child is successfully treated for substance abuse, it reduces the chances of their siblings following suit in experimenting with controlled substances. Finally, if a teen falls into substance abuse but gets help, they are less inclined to a myriad of adult issues associated with an early start in drug use: chronic unemployment, continued drug abuse and addiction, and criminal behavior.
Family therapy offers a lot of inherent benefits for treating substance abuse. The same sort of support offered through group therapy or 12-step program models is built in. At the same time interpersonal relationships that have been suffering can be addressed and mended without leaving it entirely on the person getting treatment to try and manage healing those outside of counseling sessions.
