Cynthia Sink
Paulette Coombs
Communications
4/12/12
The Breakdown We all know that addiction causes so much chaos and pain in the lives of the addict. Addiction is defined as the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. My question is what happens to the family when addiction becomes a part of it? The problem with addiction is that it is a family disease it does not just affect the addict but also the loved ones around them, whether it is family or friends. Families, when addiction is present are often painful to live in, which is why those who live among addicts may become traumatized to varies degrees by their experience. emotional, psychological and behavioral patterns are all too often characterize by the addicted family system. Living with addiction will put family members under unusual stress. Normal routines are continually being broken by unexpected or even frightening kinds of experiences that are part of living with drug use. What the addict says often won’t match up with what family members feel or see right in front of them. The drug user as well as family members usually bend, manipulate or deny reality in their attempt to maintain a family order that they want to believe is really there. The entire family dynamic becomes engulfed by a problem that spinning out of control. Little things that bother someone will become big, and the bigger problems are often swept under the rug.

When alcohol and drugs are brought into a family dynamic, the ability to maintane its emotional and behavioral functioning is extremly challenged. The family will try to balance itself. In addicted homes, this may become a dysfunctional sort of balance. Family members can become overcome by the disease to such an extent that they lose their sense of normalcy. Their lives become about hiding the truth from themselves, their children and the world around them. ”Enabling became a coping mechiniasam to shelter the children from the abuse.” (Kristen B.) Trust and faith are lost because of broken promises and they cant depend on the drug user anymore.
Family therapists interested in treating problems within a relationship have been most likely to call attention to changed family dynamics, to manifestations of distress by siblings and the roles siblings can come to adopt in relation to the drug using family member (Huberty and Huberty 1986). Although physical neglect of children has been associated with parental drug use, it is also the case that drugs affect the establishment of strong emotional bonds with parents (Kerwin 2005). Emotional neglect is much less noticed than a dirty house and can often be unnoticed. Many children are born being addicted to a substance because their mothers used drugs while they were pregnant.
It is no wonder that families such as these produce a range of symptoms in their members that can lead to problems both in the present and later in life. Children from these families may find themselves moving into adulthood carrying huge burdens that they don’t know exactly what to do with and can get them into trouble in their relationships and/or work lives. Trauma in childhood can seriously impact development and can have long lasting effects. We are only partly hardwired in life by nature. It is nurture from family that teaches us the rest. Each interaction between parent and caretaker actually lays down the wiring that becomes part of our brain/body network. This is how our early experiences that carve themselves onto our nervous systems. It is how our environment shapes our emotional being and our limbic system. All of us arrive as infants needing to learn the skills of emotion. We learn limbic regulation by being in the presence of adequate relationships, such as parents and siblings. Our nervous systems are not self-contained; they link with those of the people close to us in rhythm to helps regulate our physiology. Children require ongoing neural synchrony from parents in order for their natural capacity for self-directedness to emerge. In other words, it is through successful relationships that we achieve a healthy sense of autonomy. When the family environment is not good and does not seem to have good balance, children can have trouble acquiring these skills. They internalize what surrounds them. And not only do they internalize it mentally and emotionally, it becomes part of them.