Helping a Parent Get the Addiction Help They Need
The famed psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross famously said, “Learning lessons is a little like reaching maturity. You’re not suddenly more happy, wealthy, or powerful, but you understand the world around you better, and you’re at peace with yourself. Learning life’s lessons is not about making your life perfect, but about seeing life as it was meant to be.” Helping a parent get the addiction help they need can be one of the hardest things an adult child may ever have to do. There are many dynamics that exist that will try to get in the way of helping a parent recover. The good news is that there are many effective ways to help a parent succeed in their recovery.
Understanding Addiction
Many people don’t realize just how prevalent issues of addiction are in the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), “In 2022, 48.7 million people aged 12 or older (or 17.3%) had a substance use disorder (SUD) in the past year, including 29.5 million who had an alcohol use disorder (AUD), 27.2 million who had a drug use disorder (DUD), and 8.0 million people who had both an AUD and a DUD.”
It’s also important to understand that addiction is a disease, rather than some type of moral failing or personal choice. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), “Over time, continued substance use causes permanent anatomic and chemical changes in the brain. Addiction is a chronic relapsing disease that we must treat as we do other such diseases. We do not expect the hearts of patients with heart failure to behave normally — we understand that their function has been altered by disease. Why, then, do we expect the brains of substance abusers to behave normally, since we know that their function has also been altered by disease?”
Understanding Addiction in the Family
Addiction is not just an individual disease. It does not just affect the person who is struggling; rather, it affects them and anyone close to them. This is why addiction is often referred to as a “family disease.”
The “family disease” concept is based on the “family systems theory.” According to the peer-reviewed journal Social Work in Public Health, “The family remains the primary source of attachment, nurturing, and socialization for humans in our current society. Therefore, the impact of substance use disorders (SUDs) on the family and individual family members merits attention. Each family and each family member is uniquely affected by the individual using substances including but not limited to having unmet developmental needs, impaired attachment, economic hardship, legal problems, emotional distress, and sometimes violence being perpetrated against him or her.” These negative effects can be felt particularly hard by children of parents struggling with addiction.
Helping a Parent Get the Addiction Help They Need
Now, it should be noted that addiction help for a parent is not the responsibility of their children. This is particularly true for young children, adolescents, and teens.
However, many adult children of parents struggling with addiction will try to help them get the help that they need. Of course, this is daunting, and certainly easier said than done. Often a parent will push back against their child (even an adult child) who is trying to get them help by alluding to the traditional power dynamic that exists between parent and child. This can be hard to overcome. The good news is there are ways to make the process of getting a parent addiction help easier.
What Does Addiction Help for a Parent Look Like?
One of the most effective ways to get a parent the addiction help that they need is to reach out to a professional for help. In particular, this refers to reaching out to a professional interventionist. This is why here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab, we employ interventionists who are licensed to work in all 50 states.
An interventionist can organize the process of getting a parent the help they need by getting all family members and close friends together to tell the individual how much they love them, what their addiction is doing to them and everyone around them, and why they need help. A good interventionist is also going to have direct access to the right recovery center once that loved one says “yes” to getting the addiction help that they both deserve and desire.
The Importance of Individualized Addiction Help
Now, the fact of the matter is that addiction recovery and treatment is a billion-dollar industry, and not every recovery center has the client’s best interests at heart. These are recovery centers that often only offer overarching treatment plans that don’t focus on the individual and their individual needs.
Not everyone’s addiction story is the same, so why then would their treatment plan be? A treatment plan should always be individualized, starting with a personalized intake that takes into account an individual’s home life, occupation, specific struggles with addiction, and ultimate goals. This is key for getting a parent the help that they need because it will also include any family dynamics that are involved and affected by their addiction.
The Multi-Angled Approach: The Importance of Comprehensive Addiction Help
It is also important that a recovery plan not just be individualized, but that it also take a multi-angled approach. This means that it utilizes as many means, methods, and modalities as possible to ensure the most effective and well-balanced long-term recovery.
Effective comprehensive addiction care should try and utilize all realms of recovery. This includes psychotherapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), experiential therapies like nature immersion, surf, and horticulture therapy, and holistic healing methods like yoga therapy and meditation.
Addiction Help After a Relapse
Unfortunately, relapses can be a part of the recovery journey. This is not a failing by any means, it is just the insidious nature of the disease of addiction.
Many people don’t realize just how prevalent relapses currently are in the U.S. According to the peer-reviewed journal Current Psychiatry Reports, “It has long been known that addictive disorders are chronic and relapsing in nature. Recent estimates from clinical treatment studies suggest that more than two-thirds of individuals relapse within weeks to months of initiating treatment.” Also, “For 1-year outcomes across alcohol, nicotine, weight, and illicit drug abuse, studies show that more than 85% of individuals relapse and return to drug use within 1 year of treatment.” Psychotherapies like CBT and DBT can reduce the rates of relapse.
Addiction Help: The Benefits of CBT and DBT
Psychotherapies like CBT and DBT can be particularly beneficial because they help to get to the underlying issues that are often the root/core causes of why an individual drinks or uses substances in the first place. This is why many people in recovery use the phrase, “It is about the thinking much more than it is the drinking.” CBT and DBT can also be helpful because it helps to change the negative thoughts (cognitions) and feelings (emotions) that one has about oneself and the world around them. This can ultimately lead to positive changes in behavior.
“Symptom reduction” and “active participation” are major components of why CBT can be so effective. According to the peer-reviewed journal Cognitive Therapy and Research, “Consistent with the medical model of psychiatry, the overall goal of treatment is symptom reduction, improvement in functioning, and remission of the disorder. In order to achieve this goal, the patient becomes an active participant in a collaborative problem-solving process to test and challenge the validity of maladaptive cognitions and to modify maladaptive behavioral patterns… Although these strategies greatly emphasize cognitive factors, physiological, emotional, and behavioral components are also recognized for the role that they play in the maintenance of the disorder.”
DBT can also be highly beneficial. This is especially true if a parent is struggling with co-occurring disorders. According to the peer-reviewed journal Psychiatry (Edgmont), “Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD). The patient populations for which DBT has the most empirical support include parasuicidal women with borderline personality disorder (BPD), but there have been promising findings for patients with BPD and substance use disorders (SUDs), persons who meet criteria for binge-eating disorder, and depressed elderly patients. Although DBT has many similarities with other cognitive-behavioral approaches, several critical and unique elements must be in place for the treatment to constitute DBT.” These “elements” can also be addressed via other types of therapy.
Addiction Help: The Benefits of Nature Immersion, Surf, and Horticulture Therapies
The reality is that nature has long been shown to improve many aspects of one’s life. These are physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual. According to the U.S. National Park Service, “Listening to birdsongs and observing animals in nature have been shown to promote wellbeing, reduce stress, improve mood, and reduce attention fatigue. Natural aromas from wood and plants have calming effects and viewing nature reduces mental fatigue.” Also, “5 minutes walking in nature improves mood, self-esteem, and relaxation.”
Nature immersion therapy also offers a myriad of other benefits. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Besides improvements to physical and psychological well-being, exposure to natural environments has been shown to bring about positive impacts on cognitive functioning… While cognitive restoration and physiological well-being are the prominent and renowned benefits of nature exposure, there is one important construct that is often overlooked in environmental psychology research studies – that is, the human-nature relationship; also known as connectedness to nature (CN).” This “connectedness to nature” can also happen during surf therapy.
Surf therapy can be highly beneficial for addiction and mental health recovery. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Carefully planned water activities tailored to the needs of the individual can contribute to correct psychosocial and cognitive development. The International Surf Therapy Organization summarizes the benefits of adequately indicated surf therapy as follows: improved physical health and mobility; improved mental health, including reduction of specific symptoms, such as posttraumatic stress and depression; improved well-being (strengthening of trust and confidence, encouragement of independence, resilience and protective coping strategies) and improved social skills.”
Horticulture therapy is also an ideal and beneficial therapy to be utilized on Hawaii’s Big Island. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “People’s interactions with plants, through goal-orientated horticultural activities in the form of active gardening, as well as the passive appreciation of nature, could be therapeutic to people with mental disorders in many ways. First, horticulture could have emotional benefits, such as reducing stress, reducing psychiatric symptoms, stabilizing mood, and increasing the sense of tranquility, spirituality, and enjoyment. Second, it could help people to reduce fatigue and restore attention and cognitive ability.” This type of therapy also works well alongside holistic healing methods.
Addiction Help: The Benefits of Yoga, Meditation, and Breathwork
Yoga, meditation, and breathwork have been practiced for thousands of years as a means of finding balance and creating a greater sense of serenity in one’s life. In recent years, these practices have become more commonly utilized in the realm of recovery. The reason for this is that they have been shown to have many various benefits.
Yoga is a great therapy because it can be practiced virtually anywhere. According to the International Journal of Yoga (IJOY), “Therapeutic yoga is defined as the application of yoga postures and practice to the treatment of health conditions. Yoga therapy involves instruction in yogic practices and teachings to prevent reduce or alleviate structural, physiological, emotional, and spiritual pain, suffering, or limitations. Yogic practices enhance muscular strength and body flexibility, promote and improve respiratory and cardiovascular function, promote recovery from and treatment of addiction, reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, improve sleep patterns, and enhance overall well-being and quality of life.”
Cultivating a meditation practice is a great way to maintain long-term recovery. According to the International Quarterly Journal of Research in Ayurveda (AYU), “During the process of meditation, accumulated stresses are removed, energy is increased, and health is positively affected overall. Research has confirmed a myriad of health benefits associated with the practice of meditation. These include stress reduction, decreased anxiety, decreased depression, reduction in pain (both physical and psychological), improved memory, and increased efficiency. Physiological benefits include reduced blood pressure, heart rate, lactate, cortisol, and epinephrine; decreased metabolism, breathing pattern, oxygen utilization, and carbon dioxide elimination; and increased melatonin, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), skin resistance, and relative blood flow to the brain.”
Breathwork and other types of trait mindfulness can also be particularly helpful for recovery. According to the Industrial Psychiatry Journal, “De-addiction therapy has uncertain success rates, and relapses are common… Breathing and Relaxation Training can be used to break the cycle of stress, negative emotions, and addictive behavior by creating a sense of self-control. Breathing and Relaxation training [Sudarshan Kriya] makes those entering treatment for ADS [alcohol dependence syndrome] feel better (improves well-being).” When used in tandem, these are all highly effective modalities for helping a parent (or anyone) recover in the long term.
Getting the Right Addiction Help With Exclusive Hawaii Rehab
Here at Exclusive Hawaii Rehab, we understand that addiction is a family disease. That is why we focus on helping the entire family recover. This includes parents who are struggling to get sober.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross also famously said, “It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.” We are here to ensure that each of our clients recovers at the cellular level so they can truly live their lives to the fullest. Those amazing lives are out there waiting to be had. We can help make them a reality.
There are many complex dynamics to getting a parent into treatment for addiction. The good news is there are many effective and even practical tips for navigating these challenges. The key is finding the right type of care. Exclusive Hawaii Rehab’s personalized approach and supportive environment are ideal for addressing the unique needs of parents struggling with addiction. If you feel like you or a loved one is struggling with issues of mental illness, addiction, or both, we can help get you on the right road to recovery right away. You don’t have to go through this process alone. For more information about getting a parent the help that they need, reach out to Exclusive Hawaii Rehab at (808) 775-0200.