Family systems and chemical dependency

Family Systems & Chemical Dependency

Alcoholism affects numerous families across various cultural, social, and ethnic grounds. It is a term that depicts the uncontrollable urge to drink alcohol regardless of when or where it may take place. Although researchers have a difficult time agreeing on exactly what term to use to describe the effect that this illness has on families, one thing that can be agreed upon are the vast effects that families feel because of alcoholism. It is because of this reason that alcoholism is regarded as being a family disease. Addiction to alcohol unfavorably disturbs the dynamics between family members and between spouses. Drinking on the part of one individual negatively influences the relationships between families regardless of whether they are single parent households, nuclear or extended family members, and even gay or lesbian family units. There is no such thing as only the individual afflicted with alcoholism to be suffering; their families will always be affected in some way.

Family system theories attempt to provide an explanation for the aforementioned phenomenon. It is a theory derived from the idea that families are not only directly and mostly negatively affected by the alcoholism of one person, but it also focuses on how these family units actually encourage the alcoholic behavior. Aside from the valuable information provided through this theory, it is not without its faults. First of all, there is very little scientific research to back up any of the claims. Secondly, there is heavy gender bias both in reporting the alcoholic tendencies and in dismissing the effect that gender roles play in alcoholism. However, areas that this theory is most applicable to include: rituals and routines, shame, rules and roles, and codependency.

Rituals and routines develop within family systems as a consequence for allowing the alcoholic behavior to continue. An alcoholic enters a phase of perpetual drinking where they may participate in unacceptable behaviors, eliciting a response from family members. This response then becomes such a routine every time that the individual drinks, that it becomes a part of their normal expectancy. Someone who is constantly drunk may always act in a negative way, and in an attempt to lessen the potential damage caused by the alcoholic, the family may dismiss the behavior or give the same negative reaction back to the individual; this is in fact reinforcing the act of drinking, as it becomes a circular pattern. Family members attempt to maintain a sense of balance by ignoring these behaviors as well, and in fact cause the individual even more harm. Cultural rituals also play a part in reinforcing alcoholic tendencies since these events usually contain alcohol and may include other individuals who may not be aware of the alcoholism, in an attempt to cover up this shame, family members may in fact reinforce these behaviors by avoiding the problem. This shame shared by family members are then transcribed onto the alcoholic who may not feel supported and feel shame him or herself -- making the problem even worse.

Rules and roles are also cited as being a constituent of the family systems theory in alcoholism. Every family is different; however, they all have members that tend to fall into specific roles. The alcoholic's role is the dependent person, while their helpless partner is the enabler. The children also tend to fall into specific roles, either as the over-achiever, the scapegoat, the isolated, and/or the immature child. These are the typical roles that are makes up a family of an alcoholic. The transformation affects the entire family system, so much that everyone's life revolves around the alcoholism of the affected individual. Aside from the roles that everyone takes on, codependency begins to develop as well. There are two types of codependency discussed: the addict-centered model and the faulty family model. The latter blames the dysfunctional family unit as the root cause of the person's alcoholism and their mental health problems. It is as a result of the family stress levels that makes the alcoholic continue to drink. The addict-centered model focuses on the individual him or herself and blames the chemical addiction to alcohol as being the root cause of the problem and the main cause of the mental health illnesses that are largely comorbid.