ACOA Family Roles

1. Addictive Behaviours
Lecture #3
Family Systems

2. Families as Systems
Homeostasis or balance
Addiction
Individuals
Healthy systems
When family does not change, recover – individual is
at risk

3. Families as Systems
Dysfunction has affected all family members
Enabling
Codependence
Family members
Dry drunk
Second bottom

4. Family rules
Secret keeping
Don’t talk
Don’t trust
Don’t feel

5. Dysfunctional vs. imbalanced
Dysfunctional family
Imbalanced family
Goal = establish balance and order by addressing
problems in the family

6. Types of family systems
Rigid
Ambiguous
Overextended
Distorted
Entitled

7. Patterns of communication
Rules are maintained but do not fit the reality of what
is felt or believed
Placaters
Blamers
Intellectualizers
Distracters
Healthy = congruent words, body, feelings

8. Family system roles
Chief enabler
Family hero
Family scapegoat
Lost child
Family mascot

9. Managing anxiety
Under-functioners
Over-functioners
Blamers
Pursuers
Distancers

10. Enabling behaviour
Unhealthy doing-for
Killing with kindness
Overprotection
Taking responsibility for others lack of responsibility
Soften the consequences
Denial of real problems

11. Enabling behaviour
Avoiding and shielding
Attempting to control
Taking over responsibilities
Rationalizing and accepting

12. Stages in recovery
Similar to stages of grieving
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Feeling
Acceptance

13. EARLY MODELS
Psychodynamic models
Sociological stress models

14. FAMILY-BASED
CONCEPTUALIZATION
Family disease model
Family systems approach
Behavioural approaches

15. ETIOLOGY
Heredity
Parent-child interactions
Socialization
Antecedents
Positive consequences
Negative consequences