Heroin addiction not only can have devastating effects on the user, but the family of which he is a part. The effects of heroin addiction include eventually dissolving the family, as well as physical, emotional and mental injuries to family members. To keep the family together and to help the addict, family members suffer through the dysfunctional roles they adopt and the stress they endure. The Canyon Treatment Center notes, however, that most addicts refuse help, and instead isolate themselves and turn their backs on their families and everything else they care about.
Physical Dangers
Heroin addiction during pregnancy can have significant medical complications. Research, including a 1981 study published in the "Western Journal of Medicine," warns that heroin addiction during pregnancy is associated with malnutrition and fetal death. The children may have retardation and later behavior problems. Heroin users have higher rates of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. The unborn baby and family members are also at increased risk of being infected by the addict's disease.
Heroin addiction is also associated with increased violence against family members. Hospitals not only treat patients affected by heavy drug addictions, such as heroin addicts, but also those affected by their crimes, in most cases their family members.
Emotional and Mental Stress
Because heroin addiction can lead to ill health and increased rates of disease among users, the family shoulders the burden of the related stress. Family members will be emotionally stressed trying to find means to cover medical expenses associated with the disease. Heroin addicts often use resources allocated to the family budget. The heroin addict often neglects the well-being of his family, leading to emotional stress and dysfunction among the members. Although mental health issues are often attributed to an addict, Healthy Place warns that mental health issues also surface among family members who have endured the pain of living with the addict. These can be in the form of migraines, depression, eating disorders or suicidal thoughts.
Family Dynamics
Heroin addiction changes the behavior of all family members. The family often tries to keep the family together, taking on unhealthy, dysfunctional roles, as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warns. These roles develop into lifelong patterns of dysfunctional relationships. Often the non-addict spouse will become co-dependent, resulting in a sustained, dysfunctional form of relating for everyone. Children often resort to unhealthy ways of interacting, both in the home and in school, compounding the frustration felt within the family. Such behavior can lead to poor learning outcomes at school and a cycle of disadvantage and despair.
References
- The Canyon Treatment Center: Heroin Addiction Affects the Family
- Healthy Place: What Happens to the Family when Addiction Becomes Part of It
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Drugs in the Family: The Impact on Parents and Siblings
- "Western Journal of Medicine"; Heroin Addiction and Pregnancy; Bashore, Richard, et al.; June 1981
- "Violence Against Women"; Social support among women in methadone treatment who experience partner violence; N. El-Bassel, L. Gilbert, V. Rajah, A. Foleno and V. Frye; March 2001
