A chosen family comes in handy whether you’re in recovery or not! We all seek comfort in our close friends when our traditional family ties are strained or otherwise difficult. In recovery, your chosen family is your recovery family, and that fellowship you share is the support system that can help you get through tougher family … Continued
Of all the victims of addiction, children are the most vulnerable when addiction ravages their families. Without having done anything wrong, children of addicted or alcoholic parents are subjected to all kinds of harms, whether overt physical and emotional abuse or more subtle, but equally powerful harms like absence and neglect. Often, children from alcoholic … Continued
I have chosen to work with children not because I believe I need to step into their lives and help them, but because their strength and resiliency is both boundless and awe-inspiring. I am in the enviable position to witness this strength and resilience as a therapist in the Children’s Healthy Coping Skills Program at … Continued
by Shannon Luders-Manuel. Four people describe their experiences as children in the rooms of Alateen and Al-Anon and whether it helped them cope with their family member’s addiction. My mother has attended Al-Anon religiously for as along as I can remember. She left my dad when I was three after a particularly bad physical fight, … Continued
The good news is that children of alcoholics can and do recover. Treatment programs and community based organizations can use specially designed games and activities to help children play their way to health and understanding. During this process they build upon their strengths, deepen their resilience, and further realize their intrinsic beauty and worth.
What you are seeking here is aiding each child and the family as a whole to redefine their story based on an understanding of what things were like before, what happened that changed that, and what things are like now. These story reconstructions and storytelling processes are essential to personal and family recovery from addiction.
