Does Addiction Run in Families?

Involving your family members in your addiction recovery can positively impact your engagement with your rehab program, your likelihood of finishing that program, and a reduced risk of relapse. Family-based treatment models help examine the strengths and challenges in your current family dynamic, how you interact with one another, and how all of that can be improved to facilitate long-term recovery.

Does Addiction Run in Families?

There can be a significant genetic component to addiction. This means that sometimes addiction runs in families, so if you work on sobriety and isolation, you might go back to a family that inadvertently encourages addictive behaviors or negative thought patterns without realizing it. You might struggle with addiction the same as other members of your family, and involving everyone in your family therapy program might open their eyes to the behaviors they share and how they also might need help with addiction.

Involving family members can help everyone learn emotional responses and behaviors. Changes to interactions and connections can be mutually beneficial for everyone involved. 

Struggling with an addiction might lead you to ask, “is addiction genetic” or “does addiction run in families” especially if you’ve seen similar behaviors in those closest to you. Whether or not addiction runs in families, having your family involved in your recovery decreases your chances of a relapse.

What is the Importance of Family Therapy in Recovery?

Knowing how addiction runs in families, it is essential for you to involve your family in your recovery. 

To be clear, family is a broad term; this doesn’t necessarily mean your parents, your partner, or people with whom you have very little communication. 

You can reap the same essential benefits no matter which combination of people you choose to involve in your family therapy.

Leverage

First, involving your family can give you the leverage you need to achieve legitimate change. Addiction and other mental health disorders can seem next to impossible to overcome on your own, and increased levels of anxiety and depression often accompany them because you feel so isolated. But involving your family can help you maintain the motivation to achieve the necessary lifestyle changes knowing that you have a support network by your side.

Changing Behaviors

But you might not be the only one who needs to change. Recognizing things like “is addiction genetic” or “does addiction run in families” might be appropriate for other family members who need to identify the same type of addictive behaviors they are showing and how their behaviors or emotional responses are unintentionally helping or hurting you in your journey to recovery.

Prevention

Involving your family is crucial in recognizing what family patterns might be preventing addiction from one generation to the next. This could include an understanding that addiction runs in families, and if one person is struggling with addiction, there might be things that the other family members need to do to promote sobriety moving forward for everyone involved.

How to Find Family Therapy Programs in Florida

Family therapy helps you focus on family dynamics through group sessions that involve those closest to you. We can allow you to connect with your family members in a way you might have previously found challenging. 

If you are ready to find a family therapy program, turn to Prevail Recovery Center. Our Fort Lauderdale drug rehab offers a wide range of treatment programs, including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient programs, regular outpatient programs, and dual diagnosis programs.

In all of these, you can integrate services like family therapy, 12-step programs, and nutrition so that you address your physical and mental health simultaneously with family support. We know that your relationship with addiction can also affect your loved ones and close friends. 

We also know that involving family members in your therapy counseling gives everyone a chance to share their experiences. Family therapy programs let everyone communicate the importance of recovery, learn more about the roles they may have inadvertently played in contributing to addiction, and help one another.

Get help now by calling Prevail Recovery Center.