“Not why the addiction but why the pain.”
At the Hills, we know that substance use disorder (SUD) and mental health are not isolated conditions. For every person struggling with SUD behaviours, or mental health, there are at least six other people directly affected. Relatives and loved ones usually battle anxiety, depression, panic attacks, guilt, shame, health-related issues, etc.
THE HILLS AND FAMILY SUPPORT
A couple of examples of how the family is affected:
Codependency
It is simple to fall into a pattern of codependency when a family member has addictive behaviours or struggles with mental health, and it is easy to cross the line between helping and becoming codependent. Creating a pattern where family members feed off each other’s toxic behaviours out of fear of making the other one upset or making a bad situation even worse.
Increased anxiety
When there is someone in the family struggling with mental health and/or addictive behaviour, anyone in the family can experience anxiety, including children. Anxiety can cause insomnia, interfere with healthy eating and digestion, create irritability, and compromise how you respond to day-to-day life.
Addictive behaviors can run through generations and, when untreated, leave family members at risk for years, affecting family dynamics and leaving unhealed emotional wounds. These wounds can create unhealthy communication and inadequate coping mechanisms that could be one of the reasons why addiction started, eroding the family dynamic. At The Hills, we care for families and focus on ways to help them close the emotional gap and learn healthy ways to communicate.