Families and Drug Rehab

So you’ve come to the truth about your drug addiction.  It is out of control and you can’t deny it for one more minute.  You hurt inside and out, you don’t want to keep going like this, and you know there is just one solution – drug rehab.  You’ve made the committment to go now, but you wonder about your family.  Are they on board?  What will they do without you there?  How will they react when you come home?

Women Often Go To Drug Rehab For Their Families

Families are often the strongest reason a woman will go to drug or alcohol rehab.  They know that if they don’t get a healthy lifestyle, all of their family members will continue to suffer. 

Understandably, women are often most concerned about their addiction impacting their children.  What a woman may not do for herself, she will often muster the courage to do for her children.

Some Families Are Ready For Drug Rehab Some Are Not

It’s interesting to note that family members are not always so certain about an addicted mom, wife, or girlfriend going off for several months to drug rehab.  Older kids who have gotten away with too much freedom or being in control may dislike the sober mom.  If an addiction has allowed a husband or boyfriend’s unhealthy lifestyle to lie in the shadows, a sober woman means they may need to shape up their act.

This is not meant to disclude or discount loving well-meaning families who pray daily for the woman they love to get professional drug rehab.  For anyone like this, having their loved one go to rehab is a near miracle.  They are ready and willing to do whatever they can to support her when she returns from drug treatment.  However, sometimes family dynamics have gotten so upside down that a sober person can threaten the dysfunctional balance. 

For families who are strongly supporting the woman going to drug rehab, the waiting can be difficult.  What do they do while she is gone?  Just the fact that she is gone for a long period of time can change family dynamics.  And when she returns, the woman will bring other changes along.  This means lots of anticipation and adjustment, but little control over the events in drug rehab. 

Drug Rehab Is The Beginning of the Journey of Recovery

And certainly, drug rehab isn’t the entire journey of recovery – it is just the beginning.  Families with addiction have many wounds, displaced emotions, and unhealthy habits and patterns.  Because of the breadth of the change everyone needs to make, it is not enough that just the addicted woman get professional help.  Each family member has their own unique issues to face and deal with.  If they make little to no change, the woman is at a high risk for addiction relapse. 

When they can all get support and evolve as a family, the woman has a great chance for healthy recovery. Drug treatment isn’t easy for anyone.  It involves pain, change, and being accountable – but it’s worth it.  No one can go back in time and erase the problems addiction causes.  Drug rehab can help women and their families look to the future with hope.