Addiction as a Family Disease: Reverberations Throughout the Family System
By: Roseann Rook, CADC, Addictions Coordinator (left) and
Marcia Nickow, PsyD, CADC, CGP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center

By Roseann Rook, CADC, Addictions Coordinator (left), and Marcia Nickow, PsyD, CADC, CGP, Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Primary Therapy Coordinator (right), Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center

Although addiction is an individual issue, it rarely affects just one person. Today, addiction such as co-dependency, alcoholism, and substance abuse, as well as mood disorders, are ever increasingly seen as a family disease. The genesis of the actual addiction is often generational in nature, either through genetic predisposition, familial trauma or learned behavior. Regardless of origin, once an addiction occurs in a family member, the entire family suffers. Imagine a strip of white cotton cloth; a single drop of red food dye is dropped on the surface. In time, the dye disperses, bleeding into the surrounding area. Although the original drop is still discernible, the nearby material is definitely discolored. So it goes with an addict whose negative behaviors stain the lives of close family members.

The Family Reorganizes When a Member is Sick

Every family is, at its core, a system comprised of two or more members. In any family system, each member is affected by the other members and any change in one inevitably impacts the others. For example, if a family member such as the father becomes addicted to alcohol, the entire family dynamic alters. Perhaps the wife must take on the responsibilities and parental role of the husband; she may become the exclusive wage earner and controller of family finances. The children may adopt a caretaking role for the father; in time, he may become altogether irrelevant. As the disease of addiction progresses, so do the maladaptive roles of the family. Although the father may be present, the family reorganizes as if he was not. The family learns to cope. And this becomes their norm.

Families Want Healing But May Unintentionally Rebel

This shift in power, behavioral adjustments and redefining of roles may work, until the father decides to get help. In theory, all families want sobriety for an alcoholic member; but in practice, the family system may rebel. The wife may find it difficult relinquishing her power and control; the children may resent an absentee father endeavoring to reassert a relationship. The family unit may subconsciously “need” the father to remain the sick one because that is his role, as dysfunctional as it may be. The family may unwittingly hinder or undermine the recovery process so the dysfunction remains unacknowledged. Against all odds, the father may achieve wellness, but he resides in a family that remains ill.

This is why when women or adolescent girls come to Timberline Knolls for treatment, the entire family takes part in therapy. With a family therapist, they can examine the impact of the illness on each one of them, embrace emotional healing for the pain resulting from the disease, strive to redefine roles and responsibilities, and ultimately engage in meaningful recovery.