The mission of Parent Recovery Network is to:

• Provide a safe and supportive environment for parents to openly discuss substance use, addiction, treatment, and recovery.

• Connect parents with other families who understand the challenges of loving someone struggling with addiction.

• Provide education and resources about substance use disorders, addiction, treatment, and recovery.

• Help parents recognize enabling behaviors and replace them with healthy, appropriate boundaries.

• Encourage parents to focus on their own wellbeing and recovery while supporting their loved one.

• Help families move away from cycles of fear, guilt, regret, and shame and toward understanding, hope, and healthy change.

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With understanding, care, and compassion, PRN parents support one another through some of the most difficult circumstances a family can face. Families with lived experience can often provide something especially valuable: the reassurance that you are not alone and that there is hope.

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Join us. Get support for yourself while learning healthier ways to support the person you love.

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Meeting Information

WHEN: Thursday nights, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

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WHERE:
327 Dahlonega Street, Suite 502
Cumming, GA 30040

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COST: FREE

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PROFESSIONAL FACILITATION PROVIDED BY:
Kirsten Banks, LPC, CPCS, CAI, CIP and the team at Therapeutic Recovery Network

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Addiction Affects the Entire Family

 

Addiction doesn't affect only the person using drugs or alcohol. Its effects extend throughout the family system.

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As substance use progresses, families may experience increasing worry, conflict, financial stress, broken trust, crisis situations, and uncertainty about what will happen next. Family members can find themselves changing their own lives and behaviors in response to their loved one's substance use, sometimes without even realizing how much the addiction has begun to affect them.

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That's why recovery isn't only important for the individual struggling with addiction. Families need support and recovery, too.

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How Addiction Affects Parents

Parents of a child struggling with substance use or addiction face a particularly difficult set of emotions and decisions.

 

There may be a constant fear for their child's safety and wellbeing. Parents often question themselves: Where did we go wrong? Should we have seen this sooner? Are we doing enough? Are we doing too much?

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Out of love and fear, parents may begin rescuing their child from consequences, providing financial support, making excuses, solving problems, or repeatedly stepping into crises. While these actions are usually intended to help, they can sometimes unintentionally make it easier for unhealthy patterns to continue.

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Learning the difference between supporting and enabling is an important part of a family's recovery.

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PRN helps parents learn how to establish healthier boundaries, respond differently to addiction, and recognize that taking care of themselves is not the same as giving up on their loved one.

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How Addiction Affects Siblings

Siblings are sometimes called the "invisible victims" of addiction because so much of a family's attention can become focused on the person who is struggling.

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Brothers and sisters may experience confusion, fear, frustration, embarrassment, anger, resentment, or sadness. They may feel overlooked as parents devote increasing amounts of time and energy to managing crises involving their sibling.

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Different siblings respond in different ways. Some become extremely independent or determined not to create additional problems for their parents. Others withdraw emotionally, struggle with resentment, or begin engaging in unhealthy behaviors themselves.

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Recognizing these effects is an important reminder that the entire family deserves care and support.

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Your Recovery Matters, Too.

You cannot control another person's addiction or make someone choose recovery.

But you can learn how to respond differently.

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You can establish healthier boundaries.
You can stop allowing addiction to control every aspect of your life.
You can learn from parents who have walked this road before you.
And you can find support from people who understand.

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Parent Recovery Network is here to help. Join us Thursday nights, you are welcome here.