La familia del adicto en recuperación: un abordaje sistémico

Abstract

Throughout the history of addictions, various authors have highlighted that the individual who suffers from an addiction is willing to consume the substance even knowing the harmful consequences for his body and its implications for work, social and family life, thus placing the problem of addictions among the twenty causes of mortality worldwide. Alcoholism and drug addiction have the characteristic of modifying the behavior of the individual, motivating impulsive behavior to maintain consumption in order to try to relieve the stress that is generated in their affected interpersonal relationships. There are various types of treatment centered on the patient and her context; Through different therapeutic phases, the socio-family reintegration of the patient who has completed residential treatment is sought. In the work with families in the process of rehabilitation, it is noted that this system may be prone to experiencing crises, dysfunction and sometimes the disintegration of the family nucleus. The purpose of this case study is to characterize the family of the addict in recovery and to identify their strengths and weaknesses regarding their family functioning from Olson's Circumplex Model 1985, Our object of study is delimited to the family of the addict in recovery, after having completed a residential treatment for addiction to alcohol and other drugs in a residential rehabilitation center and is in the process of social reintegration within a period of three months to one year, for which a cross-sectional study is used in four volunteer families, using a mixed methodological design that allows us to combine research methods and techniques with different scopes; Thus, qualitative methods such as the family interview, personal interview with the identified patient and observation are used, as well as quantitative methods such as the Family Cohesion and Adaptability Assessment Scale FACES III by Olson, Portner, and Lavee. 1992 and the Olson and Barnes Family Communication Scale 2010. The scope of this research is descriptive since it is used to detail how phenomena, situations, events and contexts manifest themselves, in addition to specifying the properties, characteristics and profiles of people or groups. Once the variables analysis was done: adaptability, cohesion, communication and family satisfaction, it was found that three of the four families have a connected chaotic family functioning, their adaptability allows them to be flexible with the environment and have empathic communication increasing their level. of family satisfaction, however, it is considered a family dysfunction since it moderately favors the personal development of each member, their system of roles, rules, discipline and leadership are still changing, generating coalitions and instability, Even so, their satisfaction perspective is medium to high, so we can highlight that these families are learning to live with the new post-addiction treatment lifestyle, while the remaining family responds to a chaotic attached functioning, showing that the Emotional ties are not strengthened and there is a high degree of emotional dependence negatively influencing individual decisions. It can be concluded that the functioning of families with a member in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs, addressed in this study, is located in moderate and extreme dysfunction.