Are you having difficulty with family members because of your addiction issues? If so, you can count yourself as one of the many who are dealing with that exact situation.
Hopefully, you understand the source of the problem with your family members. For them, it’s difficult to watch you going through whatever it is you are going through. This is particularly true if your addictive behavior has harmed some of them in very direct ways. As hard as your addiction is on you, it has to be difficult for them as well.
You may not be aware of this but harm is also being done to family members who are trying to be supportive by enabling you to continue your addictive behavior unchecked. Codependency is a serious issue because it makes people do things, say things, and feel things that go against their own beliefs. That can cause problems like anxiety and depression.
Aside from codependency, here are a few other ways your addictive behavior may be affecting family members:
- Victimizing them by stealing from them or putting them in harm’s way with your addictive behaviors
- Embarrassing them among friends and within the community
- Causing them to live in a constant state of worry
- Exposing them to potential legal issues
To your credit, the fact you would read an article like this indicates you have concerns about the future of your relationships with family members. That’s a good thing because it indicates the caring still exists. The question is, “where do you go from here?”
What If My Family Never Trusts Me Again Even After I’ve Recovered from Addiction?
For now, the best thing you can do for everyone involved is stopping using, admit you have a problem and get yourself into rehab. Whether or not your family will ever trust you again will depend a great deal on what you decide to do from this day forward.
If you are willing to enter rehab, you will get an opportunity to work on you. You will likely start the process by going through a detox program. You need to cleanse your body and mind before you will be able to properly focus on therapy. As part of a medically monitored detox program, you can go through withdrawal with medical staff standing by should you have any significant discomfort issues.
Once you get into therapy, you can start focusing on the root causes of your addiction. You must gain an understanding of why you choose to use drugs or alcohol. With this information in hand, you can begin to work on ways to address your issues, which should leave you with targeted coping skills to battle temptation and your triggers.
Here’s the good part. Most reputable treatment facilities, ours included, can offer you family therapy options. If certain family members are willing to participate, you can begin working on rebuilding your relationships. By doing the hard work with family members, they will get an opportunity to see your efforts and judge your sincerity. That’s how you can earn back their trust. As long as you make a strong effort to mend fences, you can live without their trust if they won’t give it.
Let’s talk about two other ways family therapy can improve your life.
Make the Family Stronger
All families have problems and secrets. Not all families ever take steps to fix their problems. If your family participates in your treatment program, everyone will get an opportunity to provide open and honest communication. You will all be able to address all kinds of family problems, including problems that have nothing to do with your addiction. You will all also get an opportunity to learn how to better communicate among yourselves. Family relationships could get stronger,
Creating a Primary Support Resource
At the end of the day, you are going to need people to stand by your side when temptation comes calling. If you mend family fences in therapy, you will discover that family support is vital to your sobriety. As part of family therapy, they can learn the nuances of being supporting family members.
We understand your family concerns. However, you need to focus on you by getting treatment. If you come into work with us on your addiction, we’ll do all we can to help earn back family trust. You can get the whole process started by calling one of our reps at 772-266-5320.
