Addiction doesn’t just change the individual struggling with the disease; it alters every relationship they have. The cycle of secrecy and shame, the inability to care for their family properly, and all of the things involved in a life ruled by addiction profoundly affect the people who love them. Fortunately, Oceanfront Recovery’s family therapy program in Laguna Beach, CA, addresses these issues to rebuild family ties. Our addiction therapy programs are designed to help individuals manage and ultimately overcome the disease and help their loved ones.
The disease of addiction creates complex physical, emotional, social, and often legal consequences for the individual seeking addiction treatment. Our specialized addiction treatment therapy programs in Laguna Beach can help you or a loved one dealing with the effects of addiction. Alongside family therapy, we offer:
Loved ones may have the best intentions and may do their best to help the addict, but family involvement often becomes enabling rather than beneficial over time. Loved ones may frequently offer to serve as a designated driver, shield an addict from legal consequences or help support the household when financial difficulties set in. Although these behaviors are well-meaning and protect an addict’s safety, they also allow the addict to continue their self-destructive behavior.
As addiction progresses, the individual typically becomes more manipulative and self-centered, focusing almost exclusively on feeding their addiction. This behavior rightfully invokes a strong response from the loved ones of the addict, who often feel hurt and traumatized. They may blame themselves for the addict’s failures to break their habit or feel deeply saddened by the fact that they could not help. Family members may become resentful and mistrustful toward the addict as their behavior worsens or starts to cause noticeable harm to other loved ones. The psychological damage to those whose loved one struggles with addiction can be extensive but too often ignored as the addict is traditionally the only one who receives treatment.
At Oceanfront Recovery, we offer a specialized family therapy program to help families overcome these hurdles and burdens. Our program helps family members and other loved ones learn ways to support without enabling. When an individual in recovery returns home, the family has healthy boundaries and rules in place. We also provide an opportunity for loved ones’ healing to begin by giving them a dedicated space to talk about how addiction has affected them and the addict. Our family therapy program includes those close to an addict in the recovery process, bringing an individual’s network of loved ones closer together in a way that allows everyone to support one another through recovery and beyond.
At Oceanfront Recovery, we offer family therapy programs to educate and support the family and friends who have been impacted by addiction. During the recovery process for the addict, they learn about the root cause of their addictions and how to deal with those and modify their addictive behaviors so that they don’t fall back into the habits that landed them here.
The same is true for families – dealing with an addict can impact loved ones just as much as the actual addiction, albeit in different ways. They harbor guilt and shame and fear and a myriad of other emotions that have to be explored, so they can support the addict without losing themselves in the process. For healing to be complete, the families must learn how they got where they are and move to be a healthy part of a strong family in recovery. Some of the topics we talk about include:
Each of these is a skill that family members need to develop and put into daily practice to escape the grasp that addiction has on them and help their loved one remain in recovery in the future.
Family involvement helps families step back and recognize negative behavior patterns and relationship dynamics, both in themselves and in the addict. We have found that the support a family provides to a patient recovering from addiction is essential to that patient’s success, which is why Oceanfront Recovery offers a Family Weekend regularly.
We view family as a crucial component of a patient’s ongoing recovery and strive to involve family members in our recovery process and addiction treatment programs in California as much as possible, which is why these weekends are an important part of our Family Program. Since every family is different, and the process of family involvement in addiction therapy will differ for every person, Family Weekend provides a safe space for healing to begin, starting the process of family reintegration. Parents, siblings, spouses, children, and other concerned loved ones are encouraged to participate.
Contact Oceanfront Recovery to be involved in Family Weekend or to schedule family therapy with your loved ones. Call (877) 296-7477 to support your loved ones today.