WHITE FAMILIES GRANDPARENTS AND DRUG ADDICTIONS

White Families Grandparents and Drug Addictions

White Families Grandparents and Drug Addictions

Introduction

In order to understand addiction, it is necessary not only to focus on its medical symptoms but also to examine the constellation of behavioural interactions, reflective of psycho-social development, in the context of the family, the community and wider socio-economic networks in which the family functions and to which the family relates. The theory and concepts of family therapy, which came to be recognized as an independent discipline in the 1950 s, help therapists to understand this interaction (Kaufmann and Kaufmann 1999 pp. 81-93). This underlines the short history of the union between family therapy and addiction.

Changes In Social Attitudes Towards Drug Abuse And In Family Patterns

In the long run, society determines what is regarded as drug abuse and, in this respect, the attitudes and values of society are subject to change. In the late 1960 s, in certain areas of the world, drug taking was identified with protest against authority, with a search for identity or as a mystical experience. The drug abuser of that time might be today someone who casually takes medically prescribed benzodiazephine. In general, there is now a tendency towards shifting consumption from illegal to legal drugs; combining drugs and alcohol; and increasing drug consumption at home.

There are many indications of change and variations in family patterns, especially in countries of North America and Western Europe. The tendency for couples to live together without a legal bond is increasing to such an extent that, for certain age groups, unmarried couples are more numerous than married couples. In Sweden and the United States of America, one out of every two or three marriages presently results in divorce (Laqueur; La Burt and Morong 2001 pp. 82-95).

Addiction And Abuse In The Family

Research and studies ...