Intergenerational Patterns of Addiction

Genograms can be very enlightening for families. Many patterns of multigenerational issues can be exposed and explored by beginning with a genogram.

There are patterns of medical issues that can be brought to light and give a family a chance to make healthier choices in an effort to stave off the effects of genetic predispositions to certain illnesses. The same can be said for patterns of addictions across multiple generations of the family. When these patterns of addictions are uncovered, they can be addressed, and possibly used to benefit the therapy of a family member. There is great debate of nature versus nurture.What are we really a product of? Genetics, surprisingly, do play an important part in how people turn out. In the instance of a son of an alcoholic, raised by the alcoholic, that turns out to be an alcoholic, almost anyone would expect that to happen.

But what happens when the son of an alcoholic is adopted out and raised by non-alcoholic parents? Does he still turn out to be an alcoholic? Interestingly enough, yes, he does turn out to be an alcoholic. According to Campbell (2010), results revealed that having an alcoholic biological parent greatly increased the risk of their offspring developing alcohol abuse and dependence symptoms.Gene-environment studies on adopted away children have frequently shown increased risk for alcohol misuse in adoptees from an alcoholic biological background, and revealed that alcohol abuse by the adoptive parents is not associated with greater risk of alcohol abuse in the adopted child, suggesting a minor influence of environment. There are three approaches that can be taken by the families once they have uncovered a multigenerational pattern of addiction: solution focused, narrative, or intergenerational.It is in the best interest of the family, with the help of the therapist, determine which approach is the best fit for this particular family and issue at hand. Solution focused therapy is an effective approach in family therapy.

SFBT is future-focused, goal-directed, and focuses on solutions, rather than on the problems that brought clients to seek therapy. The therapist applies specific techniques and key concepts to assist the family in healing. The conversation is directed toward developing and achieving the client’s vision of solutions. The therapist applies the technique of looking for previous solutions and exceptions.

These are times when a problem could occur, but does not. The difference between a previous solution and an exception is small, but significant. The therapist also employs something called the miracle question. It is an exercise to get the family to really think about things and use their imagination to answer the question, “After we talk, you go home (go back to work), and you still have lots of work to do yet for the rest of today (list usual tasks here).

And it is time to go to bed . . . and everybody in your household are sound asleep and the house is very quiet .

. . nd in the middle of the night, there is a miracle and the problem that brought you to talk to me about is all solved . But because this happens when you are sleeping, you have no idea that there was a miracle and the problems is solved . .

. so when you are slowly coming out of your sound sleep . . . what would be the first small sign that will make you wonder .

. . there must’ve been a miracle . .

. the problem is all gone! How would you discover this? ” This question puts the onus on the client to dig deep, and try to imagine what their world would look like if it was perfect for them. This is not necessarily an easy question to answer.But it is effective.

This is an effective therapy foe many issues. However, this is not necessarily the most appropriate therapy for a family experiencing alcoholism. Narrative therapy is is a method of therapy that attempts to separate the person from the problem. According to Gold (2008), It is used as a form of community work and counseling and encourages people to rely on their own skill sets to minimize the problems that exist in their everyday lives.

It holds the belief that a person’s identity is formed by our experiences or narratives. One of the techniques of narrative therapy is to first DECONSTRUCT the dominant story.Next is to RECONSTRUCT an alternate story. According to Weaver (2007), the techniques (of narrative therapy) are intended as invitations for the client to begin to separate the desirable from the undesirable in his life in order to reclaim his life for himself. This has the possibility of being appropriate for family therapy and the issue of alcohol addiction. The third approach this paper is exploring is Intergenerational family therapy.

This form of therapy is a theoretical perspective that emerged from psychodynamic, past-oriented therapies, and evolved to view the family as a system (whole), rather than only as individual members (parts).There are two specific techniques that this form of therapy utilizes: The emphasis on balancing separateness and togetherness, and the anxiety that results when these two forces are unbalanced; and an emphasis on the past and understanding how problems and solutions are passed down, transmitted, and inherited from generation to generation within families. According to DiBlasio (1998), the intervention presented here links intergenerational theory and therapy with a step-by-step forgiveness strategy.Forgiveness is defined from a cognitive perspective so that it can be applied within a family-of-origin session.

In practice, the forgiveness strategy has been effective in breaking dysfunctional patterns from the past that have been carried into the new family. In the end, it comes down to the family. Each family is unique and while there are many approaches of family therapy available, each family needs to be assessed and evaluated in order to determine which approach is prescribed. Solution focused, Narrative, Intergenerational; they all have something helpful to offer.