Addiction in Family: An Overview of Family Components Related to Addiction

Substance abuse is one of the most critical issues in modern societies. Treatment of substance-dependent individuals is difficult and requires a comprehensive therapeutic system with different approaches such as drug therapy, psychotherapy, and rehabilitation. The purpose of the present research was to review the family components related to addiction. The method of this research was a library and analytical overview. Over the years, it has been proven that even the most effective and modern therapies are associated with a high rate of relapse. The prone environment, the ease of access to materials, the family, and the social network of bad friends are among the factors of substance abuse and its continuance. Therefore, preventing individuals from addiction is easier than curing them. In such a situation, prevention is the most appropriate and logical solution. In order to design appropriate prevention programs, awareness of the effective factors in starting and continuing addiction is necessary. Substance abuse is the result of the interaction of individual, family, social, and peer variables among which the family plays a central role in starting and continuing substance use. An overview of the research shows that family components play a pivotal role in the tendency to addiction. Among family-related components, parenting styles, attachment styles, substance use in the family, and family conflicts have the most relations to substance abuse. Therefore, the consolidation of the family foundation along with education for the whole family system plays an important role in preventing substance abuse.