CEFS 691 Week 8 DB Forum 4 (Al-Anon) Example

Discussion Board Forum 4 (Al-Anon): Thread and Two Replies

CEFS 691 Substance Abuse: Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention, Discussion Board Forum 4 (thread and two replies)

Thread by [Student Name]

The prompt, the meetings described and the classmates' posts are composites standing in for the course's own forum, with no Al-Anon member identifiable; the textbooks, Scripture and published studies are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for CEFS 691.

Thread

I expected Al-Anon to be a group of people talking about their loved ones' drinking. Instead, at both meetings I attended, members spoke almost entirely about themselves. A mother said she had spent years searching her son's room and calling his friends, and that her recovery began when she stopped. A wife described learning to leave the house for a meeting instead of staying home to argue with a husband who had been drinking. The phrase I heard most, repeated almost like a creed, was that they had not caused the drinking, could not control it and could not cure it.

Timko et al. (2012) describe Al-Anon as a mutual-help fellowship for relatives and friends of people misusing alcohol and other substances, explain its theoretical basis and helping approach, and review evidence for its active ingredients and outcomes. They call for mutual-help and professional communities to work together so that families find Al-Anon earlier. What I observed fits their account: members applied the Twelve Steps to their own lives, practiced what they called detachment with love, and supported one another through situations most of their friends could not understand.

The lesson for counselors is that a family member is a client in their own right, not only a route to the person who drinks. Capuzzi and Stauffer (2016) describe addiction as a family problem, and Copello et al. (2005) note that family-focused work can respond to the needs of family members themselves. A counselor seeing a worried parent might help them set boundaries, care for their own health and find support, whether or not the child changes. That may mean scheduling sessions for the parent alone, which some parents resist because they feel they should be spending every hour on the child.

Galatians asks believers to help carry one another's heavy loads and, three verses later, says each must carry his own pack (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Galatians 6:2, 5). Al-Anon seemed to live in the tension between those verses: caring deeply, but no longer carrying what belongs to someone else.

Classmates: how would you help a parent who believes that stepping back from a child's addiction means giving up?

Reply to Rachel

Rachel, you wrote that the Al-Anon members you heard seemed to have given up on getting their loved ones into treatment, and you wondered whether that was always wise. That is a fair question, and research suggests that families who want to engage a loved one have other options alongside Al-Anon. Roozen et al. (2010) pooled four randomized trials with 264 worried relatives and found that Community Reinforcement and Family Training, a method that coaches families to reward sober behavior, let consequences fall naturally and suggest treatment at good moments, brought roughly three times as many reluctant loved ones into care as the Al-Anon or Nar-Anon approach, and twice as many as the confrontational Johnson intervention.

The two approaches aim at different goals. Al-Anon centers on the family member's own recovery, while family training is designed to change the loved one's behavior by changing how the family responds. A counselor could offer both: family training for a parent who wants to help a son enter treatment, and Al-Anon for ongoing support whatever the son decides.

Would the families you heard at Al-Anon have been open to learning skills aimed at engaging their loved ones, or did they need to step back and recover their own footing first?

Reply to Jordan

Jordan, you noticed that several Al-Anon members spoke about their children and how the drinking at home had affected them, and you asked how counselors can help children in these families. I heard the same thing, including a mother who described her teenage daughter becoming the family caretaker. Copello et al. (2005), reviewing family interventions for alcohol and drug problems, describe the negative effects substance misuse can have on family members and identify interventions that respond to family members' needs in their own right, which would include children.

Capuzzi and Stauffer (2016) describe how children in families affected by addiction may take on roles, such as the responsible caretaker or the child who acts out, that help the family cope but cost the child. A counselor can help children understand that the addiction is not their fault, give them age-appropriate information and connect them with supports such as Alateen for teenagers.

Scripture's concern for children is clear, and the church can be one place where these children find stable, caring adults who notice them and keep showing up.

Do you think school counselors are in a good position to identify children affected by a parent's addiction, and how could they do so without singling a child out?

References

Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. D. (2016). Foundations of addictions counseling (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Copello, A. G., Velleman, R. D. B., & Templeton, L. J. (2005). Family interventions in the treatment of alcohol and drug problems. Drug and Alcohol Review, 24(4), 369-385. https://doi.org/10.1080/09595230500302356

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Roozen, H. G., de Waart, R., & van der Kroft, P. (2010). Community reinforcement and family training: An effective option to engage treatment-resistant substance-abusing individuals in treatment. Addiction, 105(10), 1729-1738. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.03016.x

Timko, C., Young, L. B., & Moos, R. H. (2012). Al-Anon family groups: Origins, conceptual basis, outcomes, and research opportunities. Journal of Groups in Addiction & Recovery, 7(2-4), 279-296. https://doi.org/10.1080/1556035X.2012.705713