Diseases of Addiction Destroy Families
Diseases of addiction destroy families as much they destroy individuals.
Addiction - A Family Disease
Often addiction becomes a family illness as family members are torn between how to help the addict/alcoholic and how to avoid being sucked into the addict’s world. Living with an addict is both heartbreaking and exhausting. Often family members trying to help an addict fall into the trap of enabling the addiction, rather than behaving in ways that help the addict to recover.
"-Anon" Fellowships - for Family Recovery
A number of "-Anon" fellowships have developed to help families of addicts, for example:
- Al-Anon for friends/families of people suffering from the disease of alcoholism
- Gam-Anon for friends/families of people with gambling addictions
- Nar-Anon for friends/families of people with drug addictions
- S-Anon for friends/families of people with sex and/or porn addictions
Whether the alcoholic/addict is still active in their addiction or not, these "-Anon" fellowships offers hope and recovery to all people affected by the addiction of a loved one or friend. The primary purpose of these 12-step-based fellowships is to help the families of the addict.
They do this by practicing The Twelve Steps, by welcoming and giving comfort to families of addicts, and by giving understanding and encouragement to the addict. They believe that addiction is a family illness and that changed attitudes can aid recovery.
Alcoholic Family Recovery:
- Al-Anon and Alateen family groups
Adult Children of Alcoholics®(ACA) & Dysfunctional Families Recovery:
- Adult Children of Alcoholics® & Dysfunctional Families (ACA / ACoA) is a Twelve Step program for overcoming the problems of men and women who grew up in alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional homes.
Gambling Addict Family Recovery:
- Gam-Anon family groups
Sex-Addict Family Recovery:
- S-Anon family groups