Resources Available for Families of People With Addiction

Calendar icon Last Updated: 07/21/2025

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It’s estimated that more than 48.5 million people in the U.S. over the age of 12 had a substance use disorder (SUD) in the past year.

Family members can play a crucial role in encouraging these individuals to seek help and achieve long-term abstinence. The resources available to loved ones stretch far and wide. As a family member, you are not alone. As you help your loved one through the journey ahead, it’s important to take care of your own mental and physical health, too.

Difficult Consequences

Family of Addicts

Family members can benefit from treatment programs and other kinds of addiction support.

Whether you’re a parent, spouse, child, grandchild, or other relative, the emotional rollercoaster and despair that family members suffer when a loved one is addicted to drugs or alcohol can be incredibly challenging. Families may find it hard to function as a unit and experience frequent turbulence in their lives. The relationships that do exist can be psychologically devastating.

In some cases, dealing with addiction can trigger the onset of mental health concerns, including depression, in family members. Research shows that around five million adolescents aged 12 to 17 (a little over 20% of the U.S. population) experienced at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in 2021.

Children who are vulnerable to the addictive behaviors of other family members are more likely to struggle with SUD themselves and often lack the protective factors that a healthy family atmosphere provides.

Advocacy Resources

Personal disparities in the family of addicts may include financial hardships, homelessness, neglect, domestic violence, and physical or psychological abuse. Relatives may also feel a great deal of shame, insecurity, stress, and the pain of covering up these issues.

Advocacy resources can also be found through many avenues including:

  • Schools
  • Workplaces
  • Hospitals
  • Local health centers
  • Community sponsored programs
  • Physicians
  • Self-help or mutual aid groups
  • Clergy

The problems you’re going through may not go away on their own. Knowing how to access these resources can help you cope with your own challenges and make sure other family members are protected.

Addiction Support Groups

Addiction support groups are nonprofessional groups that provide information about addiction as well as social, emotional, and spiritual support for individuals and their family members. Many follow the well-known and effective 12-step recovery practices established in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) groups. Online sources and scheduled meetings can help families cope with the disease of addiction and glean inspiration from others who are on their same journey.

Free, voluntary, confidential, and non-judgmental, these groups help to sustain and support recovery, wellness, and healing. They offer a high degree of insight and experiential successes, promoting hope and change. The most recognized support groups for families helping loved ones through addiction are:

  • Nar-Anon Family Groups
  • Al-Anon/ALATEEN
  • Adult Children of Alcoholics

Similar groups may be offered through local communities, charities, churches, health care providers and insurers, or even employers.

Family Counseling

Healing broken relationships between a parent and child, spouses, and other loved ones is crucial for a family experiencing addiction. A major goal of family therapy in substance abuse treatment is prevention–especially keeping substance abuse from moving from one generation to another. Study after study shows that if one person in a family uses alcohol or drugs, the remaining family members are at increased risk of developing substance abuse problems.

Family therapy is a great place to start. You can also attend individual, couples, and group therapy. In addition to in-person meetings, many organizations offer these services online in a flexible, convenient format. The following are some online resources to help you explore your options:

  • National Board of Certified Counselors
  • American Psychological Association
  • SAMHSA
  • National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence

Professional Intervention

A growing resource for family members is professional intervention. Individuals experiencing addiction might be ambivalent toward making the appropriate changes. The same could hold true for co-dependents in the family whose lives revolve around their moods and satisfactions. Addiction specialists are called to intervene on behalf of the family members, educating and preparing them for the inevitable break in these cycles of despair.

Professional interventions create a formality where loved ones can open up to the individual and share their own concerns about their choices. Family members are empowered to express their support for the person, the choice of treatment they recommend, and the consequences should they decline. By raising the bottom line, the family can create the conditions that make the decision to get treatment more attractive.

You’re not alone, and your loved one isn’t either. With the right resources and support, you can help your family member find the help they need.