Substance use disorder isn’t just a problem for the individual using those substances. It affects everyone around them, including friends, family, children, and more.
At the same time, individuals struggling with substance use disorder shouldn’t have to struggle alone. The best way to escape the cycle and learn to cope without those substances is with the support of those same family and friends.
Recovery is an ongoing process, and it helps to encourage those close to you to attend support groups and educational opportunities to know how to help in a way that is truly helpful. Whether it’s learning the realities of addiction, gaining healthy coping mechanisms or understanding how best to assist someone struggling with substance use, support groups can be an excellent resource for the families of individuals with substance use disorder.
Fortunately, here in the Detroit area, you have a lot of resources available. It’s just a matter of finding the time to attend.
DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered medical or psychological advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any mental health condition or replace professional therapeutic care. Every individual’s experience with trauma and mental health is unique. Please consult with a qualified mental health professional, therapist, or healthcare provider to determine the most appropriate treatment approach for your specific situation. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency, please contact your local emergency services or crisis hotline immediately.
Can Family Attend Addiction Support Groups?
If you have a loved one who is struggling with addiction, you may wonder if you’re even allowed to attend meetings for addiction support groups. When your mental image is a group of people all struggling with addiction, supporting one another, you might not be able to picture room for someone who isn’t themselves also struggling.
The truth is, the answer varies from group to group. Broadly, there are three categories of support groups for this situation.
- Support groups for individuals with substance use disorder, sometimes specialized on one addiction, sometimes open to any, but limited to just those personally struggling.
- Support groups open to both individuals with substance use disorder themselves, or the close family and friends of the people who have addiction.
- Support groups explicitly for family and friends (and caregivers, and other relations) of those with substance use disorder, but not for those using themselves.
Therefore, it’s important to know what kind of group you’re investigating and whether or not it’s accessible to you.
For support groups in the second and third categories, family attendance is encouraged. The better situated you are to help, the more knowledge you have, and the more resources you have, the better equipped you can be to assist the loved one in your life who struggles with addiction.
Is a Support Group Right for You?
Probably! If you’re in a crisis, a support group isn’t appropriate, but otherwise, they can be very valuable resources.
Many people tend to think of support groups as something you attend when you have an issue you’re struggling with, whether it’s depression, anxiety, substance use, or something else. If the person struggling isn’t you, but a family member, should you attend a support group?
The reality is, support groups are for everyone. It’s an expression of community, of people in your area helping one another in these otherwise disconnected times. This kind of community support used to be part and parcel of living in a society together, but as our lives have become increasingly disconnected from one another, so too has this kind of support.
Support groups are a way for people to share their experiences, vent when they need relief, offer advice when they’ve gone through something similar, and generally help one another out.
Support groups differ from other kinds of therapy and treatment in that they’re generally a bit more casual, led by peers or trained specialists rather than psychotherapists or physicians. They can range from mostly casual chat sessions to structured programs following a plan that has been proven to work.
If you’re a family member of someone struggling with any mental health challenge, not just substance use, a support group can be right for you. You may have to browse and “shop around” to find the right one, but there are dozens of options throughout Detroit and many, many more available virtually. It’s just a matter of locating them.
Support groups are, in fact, one of the best options available to you, for a few reasons.
- They’re almost always free to attend.
- They can help you with education, skill-building, and coping mechanisms to make your life with someone with addiction easier.
- They can connect you with other resources, including financial resources, that can be available to you or to your loved ones.
If nothing else, sometimes it’s just important to have someone you can talk to who truly understands what you’re going through. That alone is invaluable to many.
What Support Groups Are Available in the Detroit Area?
There are a lot of resources available throughout Detroit, so it’s worth exploring the options to find one that works best for you. We’ve listed as many options as we can find, but if there are any you know of that we didn’t list, or any of these that no longer exist, feel free to reach out and let us know.
Henry Ford Health
Henry Ford Health is one of the foremost providers of healthcare and mental healthcare throughout the Detroit area, and really through most of southeast Michigan. They have a wide variety of programs and treatment options available for behavioral health, including substance use disorder treatment.
Right now, Henry Ford Health offers virtual family programs out of its Maplegrove Center in West Bloomfield. But, since they’re virtual, you can attend them online using Microsoft Teams. Instructions for joining and information about the program can be found on their page here.
Henry Ford offers two different programs.
The first is a skill-building program. This program is intended for adults who have family members who struggle with addiction. Programs are held on Thursdays at 6 pm, and rotate through six sessions that cover education about addiction, communication and problem-solving skills for family, stress management for living with individuals with addiction, and how to establish boundaries, roles, routines, and relationships.
The second program is called the SHARE program. It’s more of a traditional support group open to family and friends of those with addiction. It’s also open to adults, is free, and is ongoing. It’s also held on Thursdays, but later, at 7:30 pm.
Both of these programs are completely free and open to anyone who meets the criteria to join.
Families Anonymous
You’ve likely heard of the “anonymous” groups, like alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous. These are what are known as 12-step programs, named such because they center around a set of 12 steps used to recover from addiction. While 12-step programs aren’t necessarily right for everyone, they’re exceptionally helpful for people receptive to their structure.
Families Anonymous is a similar 12-step program designed for the families and friends of those in other 12-step programs. While you might not need to go through the whole set of steps and process, the meetings can be powerful as a way to understand both the struggles and the framework being used.
Families Anonymous hosts both in-person and virtual meetings, both of which are tracked here in their meeting directory. In Detroit, there are in-person meetings:
- One Thursday per month at 7 pm at the 1st United Methodist Church in Birmingham (other Thursdays hold virtual meetings with the same group).
- Tuesdays at 7 pm at Ward Presbyterian Church in Northville, or at the Rotary Park in Livonia.
There are also a variety of virtual groups that can be attended from further away, which are categorized in this document. On top of that, Families Anonymous also has a specific niche for significant others and spouses, with a virtual meeting that fires twice each month on Zoom.
All of these groups are also completely free to attend, and generally do not have an expectation that you speak up during the meetings; you’re generally free to listen and learn without obligation.
Face Addiction Now - FAN Detroit
Face Addiction Now is a growing organization with a variety of local chapters across the state. It’s a registered non-profit organization that was originally founded in Fraser, Michigan and is deeply rooted in Michigan as a whole.
FAN coordinates care, offers practical support, links families and individuals with no-cost programs, and helps with resources where available. They’re a faith-based organization, but they don’t limit their assistance to just members of their chosen faith. They even offer scholarships to support recovery efforts.
The organization as a whole actually has several chapters located in the greater Detroit area, which you can view in their chapter directory. Simply find the chapter nearest to you, look up when and where they meet, and reach out if you have any questions. They’re very active at responding and are more than happy to help.
Additionally, many FAN chapters allow children as young as 10 to attend along with their families, which is a rarity for some of these support groups.
ACA - Adult Children of Alcoholics
More formally known as Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families World Service Organization, ACA is a support organization aimed specifically at the children of individuals addicted to alcohol, narcotics, or other sources of dysfunction.
ACA has meetings regularly, with 19 groups in the Detroit area meeting either in person or virtually. You can browse their list of meetings using their search page here.
It’s worth looking into the kind of meeting they offer. Some are discussions, some are speakers, some are step-based programs, and some center around the fellowship text known as the Big Red Book, or BRB, from the ACA group. While many ACA meetings center around 12-step programs, not all of them do. They recommend attending at least six meetings before fully making a decision about whether or not they can help you in your situation.
Nar-Anon
Nar-Anon is Narcotics Anonymous, which itself is outside the scope of today’s list. However, Nar-Anon also has a range of Family Groups specifically for the families and close friends of those who have a substance use disorder centered around narcotics. Additionally, they have Narateen, a program specifically for teenagers in the same situation.
Nar-Anon offers both in-person and virtual meetings. There are several different meetings throughout Detroit, including:
- St. Lucy’s Church in St. Clair Shores
- Royal Oak First United Methodist Church
- CARES of Farmington Hills Community Resource Center
- Mack Alive in Detroit’s downtown
- SHAR Academy in Detroit on Grand Boulevard
- Calvary Church in Southgate
If you’re so inclined, there are also a couple of meetings just across the river in Windsor.
Other Support Groups
The listings above are just a selection of what you can find throughout Detroit. There is a wide range of other support groups, which can be centered around other mental health disorders, other peer support concerns, or just general community support. In Detroit, it’s not even uncommon for your local neighborhood to have something that can help, though how available and how structured they are can vary.
Another option you can consider is family therapy. Family, which can include parents, children, siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins, guardians, and near anyone else who can be considered part of the group, can participate in group treatment along with the individual seeking therapy and treatment for substance use disorder.
At BMC-Troy, we have specialists in addiction that are available to assist you. We also offer family therapy as an option to assist when an individual family members difficulties, like substance abuse, affect their lives and homes.
Therapy, unlike peer support groups, isn’t going to be free. However, with skilled psychiatrists and psychotherapists on our team, we’re sure to have someone who can help you the way you need to be helped. We also participate with many commercial insurances which can help alleviate some of the financial burden.
To get started, fill out our new patient intake form online. We’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as we can, usually within 48 business hours, and get the process started. Feel free to reach out by calling our office at 248.528.9000 with any additional questions. We’re currently accepting new patients, so there’s space for you and your family.