Analysis Of The Book ' Codependent No More

Family is an instrumental part in an addict’s addiction and recovery process. Many families are left feeling hopeless, and frustrated on how to help a loved one dealing with a substance use disorder. Some families will give up on the loved one because of the frustration this disease brings upon a family, and the lack of understanding of what this disease is capable of doing. Other families are willing to do whatever it takes to help and get that

In the memoir Beautiful Boy, by David Sheff, we get a glimpse of his son’s addiction to crystal meth. Sheff wrote an amazing story that illustrates how hard it is for a parent to struggle with co-dependency and the natural feelings of wanting to protect your child. This book emphasizes how difficult it is for a parent to stand back and let their children’s life fall apart because of their addictions. Beautiful Boy, shows us many situations that co-dependents struggle with everyday with their loved ones. Some of the themes a co-dependent struggles with are the obsession of the mind, enabling, and feelings of hopelessness.

Codependency is a passionate, mental, and behavioral condition to alcohol, drugs or some kinds of betting. Codependency describes behaviors, thoughts and feelings that go beyond normal kinds of self-sacrifice or caretaking. Codependence was first observed in the wives of alcoholic men. Co-addicted people might believe that, at some level, getting a partner or family member to become drug-free or alcohol-free might seem like the one goal which, if achieved, would bring them success in their life and happiness. But on another level, they might realize they are behaving in a way that enables the addict with whom they live to maintain their addictions.

Drug and chemical abuse affect many families and that particular family that lives through a loved one who is an addict and the priority is to get help for the individual. In any intervention that involves drug addicts, a family's disposition is very important. Full recovery of any drug addict involves the restoration of the person's life as well as ensuring that those who are around the addict have the best ability when it comes to helping with abstinence which is a long-term goal. Abusers are often in denial or even believe that they are totally in control of their use of drugs

After reading the memoir titled The Heroin Diaries, in which the author, Nikki Sixx, presents a first hand account of his battles with heroin addiction over the course of one year, we must incorporate certain concepts in order to better understand his condition. In this essay I will explore concepts such as empathy, self responsibility and personal identity as identified in Identity and Agency: Conceptual Lessons for the Psychiatric Ethics of Patient Care as well as the concepts of detached and affective blame brought forth by Hannah Pickard in Responsibility Without Blame: Philosophical Reflections on Clinical Practice. Through exploration of these concepts I will show how they apply to Nikki Sixx and his seemingly endless battles with addiction.

Although, there are many efforts to reduce the stigma of addiction, false concepts among individuals still persist. Many individuals may describe drug addicts as “people who are morally weak and cannot control their impulses”, or simply just “people who cannot get their life together”. Such misconceptions suggesting that

It was never my intention to work with addicted clients, but nearly every family therapy course I have taken has, either overtly or covertly, stressed the need to understand addictions. While I understand the concept on a cognitive level, I had judgements about the type of people that become addicted and did not feel compelled to work with them, until my niece died. Her drug addiction deeply affected all members of her immediate family. Her parents and her step-dad, my brother, each reacted to my niece’s addiction in different ways but none were successful and the family began to fail under the stress.

Within the text The Addict by Katherine Fleming it addresses several serious ideas and issues within Australian society. Fleming has conveyed these ideas through several structural and language conventions in order to convey her own values and beliefs around these issues. In The Addict We hear from the author and testimonials from Heath, A recovering addict and her interviewee. This article has been written for an Australian audience and was published in a state-wide newspaper called “The West Australian” and is distributed both digitally and physically. I find that Fleming uses The Addict as a way to attempt to tackle several major issues facing the average young Australian population.

Schuckit, M. A. (1992). Advances in understanding the vulnerability to alcoholism. In C.P. O’Brien & J. H. Jaffe (Eds.). Addiction states (pp.93-108). New York: Raven Press

Substance abuse is a tragedy that touches many lives. Abuse begins with a single use event that, with continued use and overindulgence, transforms into a battle. The abuser most always loses that battle. Personal relationships, social ties, and employment suffers. Irresponsible and erratic behavior becomes the norm, and though the abuser is aware on some level of the reckless and thoughtless acts that they commit, they continue to use and abuse their drug of choice. What starts as experimentation often ends in addiction. The best hope for a person in the grips of substance abuse is immediate,

The majority of children living in a dysfunctional family with a drug addicted parent will not develop a secure attachment with another individual, where the relationship revolves around intimacy and mutual understanding. Parents who are codependent on each other have learned to regard the dysfunction as normal, and their children could be susceptible to numerous scenarios. They could become the target of their parent’s abuse, either sexual or physical. The children of codependent parents could easily gain access to drugs or alcohol since no one is paying attention to the child. The codependent parents are preoccupied with the alcoholic or drug addicted parent, and they might never bother to realize their child is in grave danger. The codependent parent’s children might never recover fully from the trauma, abuse, or neglect inflicted on them. In addition, the children learn to become adults who repeat the vicious cycle of domestic violence or abuse themselves. Children of codependent parent might grow resilient despite

Upon entering the NA meeting I had mixed feelings. I didn’t know how to come to the meeting knowing my intentions were neither to give nor receive help. I felt like I was an intruder. I didn’t understand why I should betray others or act as if I was an addict who chose not to interact in the healing and recovering process. All of those things pushed me into the door of a meeting and open my mind to the hurt behind the physical appearance of these people. Their stories were heart wrenching. They all wanted help or do be noticed at some point of their lives before they became addicts. Never knowing the decisions they chose to take that first hit would turn their

Although all sorts of families can be devastated by addiction, but single parent units (the most common lower class structure) are the most obscured. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches supports, “In every family unit, each person plays a role (or multiple roles) to help the family function better and to maintain a level of homeostasis, stability and balance. When substance abuse is added to this dynamic, the family roles naturally shift to adjust to the new behaviors associated with drug or alcohol use, and to continue maintaining order and balance.”4 In single parent units there is an inability of a second parent to fill the void role of the addicted parent. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states, “Frequently, children may act as surrogate spouses for the parent who abuses substances. For example, [young] children may develop elaborate systems of denial to protect themselves against that reality of the parent’s addiction. Because that option does not exist in a single‐parent household with a parent who abuses substances, children are likely to behave in a manner that is not age‐appropriate to compensate for the parental deficiency.”2 So a child growing up in a compromised family unit where addiction is present may develop altered norms and mature into an addict themselves.4

What qualifies the continued engagement in an activity or use of a substance as an addiction as opposed to an interest or hobby? In describing her own relationship with her lover, which had been downtrodden at the hands of her partner’s daily ritual with alcohol, Donna Steiner, in her essay Sleeping With Alcohol, reveals the negative effects that alcoholism, or addiction in any form, can have on the life, well-being, and relationships for the agent of the addiction, in this case her partner, as well as those people with whom she is close. While many characteristics are shared between sufferers of various types of addiction, there exist three essential components to all addictions: the detriment that the activity has, the compulsiveness of engaging in the activity, and the futility of the subject’s attempts to stop partaking, all of which can be observed of Steiner’s partner in Sleeping With Alcohol.

With the awareness of substance abuse as an illness, attention has also been directed to the families and loved ones of those who suffer. Why do families and loved ones stay with someone who is so obviously ill? Why do they tolerate being taken advantage of? One of the first books to address this issue is Codependent No More. According to the author, the issue at hand is codependency, where the individual in the relationship with the addict suffers from an illness as well. This paper is an analysis of the book compared with similar research on the topic.