While You Wait: What to Tell Your Family Before Alcohol Rehab

July 25, 2011

One of the hardest things about heading off to alcohol rehab is leaving behind family and friends to head into an unknown environment. Before you go, there are a number of things that you can do to make the transition process and alcohol addiction treatment itself easier on you and on them:

Talk to them about the nature of your alcohol addiction. It’s important that your family members understand that you are not deserting them, especially children. Alcoholism is a disease; pointing out that you are undergoing medical treatment will help your family to understand why you have to leave and that the length of your treatment will help you to feel better and make better choices when you come home.
Let them know what alcohol rehab entails. It can take a lot of fear out of the experience for you and your family if everyone knows what to expect. Get as much information as you can from your alcohol rehab about the nature of the addiction treatment program, including what your schedule will look like, what the facilities offer, the amenities available, the rules of the program, and more.
Give them an idea of when and how often you will be able to communicate with them. There are often restrictions placed on when and how often you can call home or even if you can communicate via email or letter. Find out what those restrictions are in advance so that your family doesn’t worry about you.
Offer them the opportunity to come visit and go through family therapy with you. Many alcohol rehab programs offer you the chance to begin to work on communication and family issues through family therapy sessions during treatment. Allow one or more family members to take part in the experience with you.
Discuss how they and you want things to be different at home after alcohol rehab. If you and your family stay focused on the goals of treatment and what you want for your family in the future, it can help you to do the work it takes to make it happen, including alcohol rehab programs.

More Alcohol Rehab Information

Stay tuned for the next post in the series, While You Wait: Taking Care of Details Before Alcohol Rehab, or check out earlier posts: