One of the painful things to discover is knowing that your family member is addicted. Although not everyone knows the signs to watch out for that tell someone is addicted. When your family member is addicted, they might not behave like the same person you used to know.

Therefore, you need to be prepared for a change in behavior, character, and also some physical signs. This would help you know how to assist them to break free from addiction.

Here are some ways to know if your family member is addicted

Mood swings

One of the common signs of addiction is mood swings. You will notice that they are unable to manage their emotions.

They can suddenly appear overly excited and the next minute, they are looking moody or depressed. If you notice that a calm person is always hyper, or someone active is looking calm, then addiction might be in play.

Private behavior

Addicted individuals prefer to keep to themselves instead of staying around people. They know that if they spend too much time with people, someone might find out about their addiction.

Hence, they develop a social stigma that allows them to withdraw from their relationships. You will notice that their doors are always locked, and they will be secretive about places they visit.

Overall appearance

When someone is addicted, it means that they have been abusing substances or undergoing some unhealthy behaviors for a long time.

If an individual is addicted to substances, there are lots of physical signs that you can notice.

For instance, they might have bloodshot eyes, rapid weight gain/loss, lack of personal grooming, slurred speech, persistent itching, regular sniffing, etc.

When you notice that your family member is addicted, remember not to be offensive with your approach. Rather, treat them with love so that they can easily open up to you.

When they have accepted their addiction problem, you can refer them to a rehab or addiction treatment center to begin their sobriety journey.

For families who have addicted family members, it might be difficult maintaining a cool atmosphere in the house because not everyone finds it easy to live with an addicted member.

If it is not properly controlled, addiction has the capacity to destroy the unity in a family. And this is why it is important to put in measures in place that will forestall this.

Families need to understand that when their loved one is addicted, it would be difficult to see eye to eye. Addiction has the capacity to affect the mental reformation of an individual, and this affects their interaction with people who are not addicted.

It is quite difficult to treat an addicted person because of the complications attached. First off, people who are addicted do not like accepting the fact that they are addicted. And this is why the conflict between families and their addicted loved ones would continue to exist.

The first step to helping an addicted family member, is to show love to them. For people who are addicted, their belief is no one cares about them and loves them. So, they would rather stay on their own that open up to others, for the fear of prejudice.

However, once a family shows ample care to their addicted loved one, there is a strong chance that their loved one would agree to come in for treatment.

Another way to make this a reality is to link up with a counselor. The reason why a counselor is important, is for the purpose of thorough evaluation.

A counselor helps the addicted individual to find out the real cause of their addiction, and proffers solution on how he or she can get better.

When the individual gets fully into the rehab, it is also mandatory that the family members give their unflinching support. At this stage, the individual needs the best of emotional, physical and mental support he can get, and one of the avenues to achieve this is through the family.

One of the factors that can make a family happy is sound health. No family would be happy if any of their loved ones is passing the night in the hospital due to a healthcare problem.

Moreso, no family would feel happy if their loved one is struggling with mental health problems or addiction.

The only way to change this is for the family to put structures in place that will see to their overall health and wellness. It might be difficult to stick by these measures, but they are usually worth it in the end.

Below are some health tips that the family should imbibe:

1. Exercise: It is important for the family to always exercise. The interesting part about exercising is, as stressful as it might look, the benefits are immense. It is even more advantageous for the family to exercise all at once because, it would be fun for them.

When the family is exercising together, it would be difficult for them to get bored or tired out. The family heads can also turn it to a form of competition that would ensure everyone’s active involvement.

• Good nutrition: In addition, it is essential for the family to imbibe the act of eating good food. It is a known fact that the family might not have ample time to be together and eat the same meals all through the day. However, when the family is together, it is important they eat a balanced diet with fruits, vegetables and enough water.

• Communication: The act of communicating within a family is one of the greatest health tips ever. The reason for this is communication helps to improve the mental and emotional needs of the family. For instance, if any of the family members is going through tough times at work or school, it is important to communicate to the rest of the family.

There are other health tips for the family to imbibe, but applying these fundamental ones would go a long way in keeping the family healthy.

Family is an integral aspect of recovery when it comes to addiction. Each one of these people at one time of their lives, have had to combat addiction, and this makes it easier to proffer the needed help to other members of the family who are addicted.

It is advised that when addiction occurs in a family, the remaining members of the family need to make certain conscious efforts to ensure that they help the individual to receive the necessary help.

Below are integral steps needed to treating addiction in the family:
Know all what you need to about addiction: This is usually the first step in addiction treatment, it is important that you know more about the addiction which is plaguing you, and how you can combat it. There is also an important need for you to know the origin of the addiction. This would aid your family in knowing how best to offer you the needed treatment. Proper education about addiction also helps the family to avoid blaming the addicted individual.

Link up with people who understand: For an addicted individual who has a loving family, he can be sure that they would assist him in connecting with other people who have a good understanding of the addiction recovery process.

Attend family therapy sessions: Handling an addict is not an easy task. Hence, as the addicted person gets better during the course of addiction, the family also tries to adjust. A good number of time, the family members usually absorb the consequences of the addiction, all in a bid to ensure that the addicted member of their family gets better.

Eat healthy meals: One important factor in addiction recovery, is having to eat nutritious meals, and this is one of the primary functions of the family. There is a need for the individual to eat nutritious meal and eat together with the family, it helps to strengthen the bond between the individual and other members of the family, owing to the fact that he must have been withdrawn from them for a good period of time.

Conclusively, the addicted individual needs the family all through the addiction recovery process, and it is essential that they are available to help out.

Because our culture is very individualistic, it is more common for us to view addiction as a an individual’s problem rather than an entire family’s problem. This is problematic because the root of most people’s addiction problems is within their family. More often than not, if one member of the family is affected by addiction, it is likely that other members of the family are affected by addiction or mental disorders as well. Families develop mentally unhealthy patterns together and the ideal addiction treatment would include treatment for the whole family. You may have an addiction problem within your family if you notice any of the following:

• One or more family members over uses a substance or an activity to the point that it causes problems within the family. If any members of the immediate family are addicted to something that is obstructing the health of the family unit, then addiction is a family problem. This picture of addiction problems is typical of a family.
• Your family has a history with addiction that lasted for a long period of time. Even if it was just one family member who struggled with addiction, if it is over an extended period of time, it is enough to leave a lasting impression on the family, particularly if the addiction was associated with traumatic events.
• The choices and behaviors of the original addict within the family affected the family dynamic in a way that influenced other family members toward unhealthy behavior. Typically, the lasting impression that an addicted family member leaves on the other family members is a transferred addiction problem or a mental health problem.
• The family can fall into episodes of conflict and altercation together, having a negative impact on all family members. If the addiction problem within the family is associated with family disputes, emotions and altercations, then the addictive behavior within the family has indeed become problem for the whole family unit.

Addiction has a profound effect on families. It has not been understood until recently that addiction problems can very commonly be traced back to the dysfunction within a family unit. This is important because it makes addiction a problem rooted within support systems rather than isolated to one member within the support system.

Addiction is usually born within a family when one or both of the heads of the family bring it into the equation from their personal history. It was present in their history because the destructive cycle of addiction plays out in many families over many generations. When the addicted head of family introduces it into the new family they have started, things become dysfunctional quickly. Emotions run very high, dreams of unity are shattered and emotional connections between family members are broken.

Through this route, addiction affects all of the members of a family like a toxin would. Sometimes it impacts family members by influencing them toward addiction, while other times it impacts them by creating other stress points within them, typically mental disorders. It has been found that children who are exposed to adverse situations are also more likely to have physical health problems, so an addict within the family affects the well-being of the children within the family immensely.

It is not long before everyone in the family develops an unhealthy set of responses to the addiction problem. This cyclical behavior and system of patterns is based on interactions between the family members and by the inner life of each family member. This pattern becomes permanent and unbreakable without outside intervention.

Addiction is incredibly difficult to treat in part because the root of the problem is not isolated to one person. Family units walk into addiction together, and ideally, every family should walk out of it together as well. Sadly, this is often not the case. Many times, the most addicted and troubled family member does not have the support of their family to quit. Instead, their family enables them and makes their struggle even more difficult.

When addiction is a problem that is rooted within the family and is taking a toll on more than one family member, it requires a special kind of treatment to eradicate. It is not commonly known that most cases of addiction have ties to other close family members and the behavior and choices of those family members greatly impact the behavior and choices of the family members or member who are struggling with addiction.

Understanding whether or not a case of addiction is a family problem comes through evaluation of the family’s operations. In most cases, a parent has struggled with an addiction or mental disorder of their own and has influenced their child’s behavior for the worse. Some people think that parents pass their addiction traits along to their children directly, but it is more complex than that. Some children follow their parent’s examples of addiction and incorporate them into their own lives, but it is also common for a parent to have a mental disorder that results in eventual addiction for their child, or for a parent to have an addiction problem that results in eventual mental disorder for their child.

Mental health specialists and addiction treatment experts know how heavily a family unit is tied to the addiction problems of individual members. That is why they offer counseling for the entire family rather than only the addict. When a recovering addict is spending time in an addiction treatment center, they will frequently be offered sessions of counseling for their immediate family members on certain days. Similarly, there are professional counselors who specialize in family addiction counseling to address the problem as a family responsibility rather than one individual’s responsibility.

Addiction can be deeply ingrained within a family and can be a laborious, painful thing to confront. Families do not need to deal with addiction alone. Everyone has the right to addiction specialists who sort out these complex problems professionally. If your family is being damaged by addiction, reach out for help today from an addiction specialist, such as that of an alcohol rehab British Columbia or a drug detox center Ontario.

The more we learn about addiction, the more we realize how much the family dynamic plays a part in it. A majority of addiction cases reveal that the addict has one or more family members who are either addicted themselves or have been affected by addiction in their lives. This is a very important factor to consider in treating addiction and in understanding addiction. It means that the family’s health can only be sustained if the family confronts the addiction problem as a unit.

The members or member of a family who are addicted are the ones initiating the dynamic of addiction onto the family. They are not to blame for their addiction problem because addiction is a legitimate disease, however, they are responsible for initiating a change to their lifestyle because no one but them can end the cycle of addiction.

The addict’s spouse or life partner suffers immensely due to the addiction problem. The partner of a spouse lives within a marriage of broken dreams and fruitless expectations. Their reality is disappointment until their partner takes the initiative to change. Some partners of addicts spend their lives waiting for change and it never comes. This is the sad reality of addiction. A spouse may also be a fellow addict, in which case the marriage and the household will be wrought with dysfunction.

The children of addicts are the ones who suffer the most. A partner at least has the option to leave, so long as they are mentally sound enough to recognize this option. Children, however, are dependent on their parents for provision and example, even if the parent is an addict. Parents who are addicts can be hurtful, abusive, neglectful and dangerous. Mental health experts have discovered that the children of addicts are likely to be withdrawn, dysfunctional and experience problems with addiction themselves.

Other close family members are likely to go through anxiety, depression and anger over their loved one’s problem. Every family unit reacts differently. Some come together over the addict and fight for their recovery while others crumble and scatter, no being able to perceive recovery.