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What Addicts/Alcoholics Tell Me About Their Families

17 Jul 2023 · 0 min

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0:26

A short excerpt from a YouTube video (Amber Hollingsworth) describing how family members often react to a loved one’s addiction with panic and punitive actions (e.g., grounding, taking away privileges). Hollingsworth—speaking as a therapist—observes that addicts rarely disclose or address their addiction in therapy until their families stop reacting aggressively, because the addict is focused on the family’s behavior rather than their own substance use.

So you get freaked out as the family member, and you just, like, run towards it 100 miles an hour. You try to make it stop. You know, if it's a kid, you start punishing them, and you're grounded and taking away your car. You know, all this stuff. And as long as the family's doing that, As a therapist, no one ever talks to me about their problem with addiction until the family stops. The reason is, is because all they can think about is, what, like a B, you know, my mom is or my wife is.