Recovery is a family journey, too

Every September, Recovery Month provides an opportunity to celebrate people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, challenge the stigma that still surrounds addiction and raise awareness of the support available.

But at Families Out Loud, we know there is another part of the recovery story that can sometimes be overlooked: the family. Addiction rarely affects one person alone.

Behind someone struggling with drugs or alcohol there may be parents lying awake at night, partners wondering what they should do next, siblings trying to hold the family together, or children living with uncertainty they do not fully understand.

And while much of the conversation around recovery understandably focuses on the person experiencing addiction, their loved ones may need support and recovery of their own.

Families can play an important role in recovery

The importance of families is increasingly being recognised within national approaches to addiction and recovery. Government guidance on recovery support services highlights the role that family relationships can play in recovery. A 2024 UK survey referenced in the guidance found that three-quarters of respondents in recovery said family members had played a significant role in their recovery, providing support including emotional help, housing, childcare and financial assistance (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2025).

That support can be invaluable. But providing it can also come at a considerable emotional cost. Families affected by addiction can experience fear, anger, guilt, exhaustion and isolation. Relationships may become strained. Boundaries can become difficult to maintain. Family members may spend so much time responding to crises or worrying about the person they love that their own wellbeing gradually moves further down the list. This is why supporting families cannot simply mean teaching them how to better support the person experiencing addiction. Families deserve support in their own right.

Addiction continues to affect thousands of families

Recovery Month also provides an opportunity to consider the continuing impact of drugs and alcohol across the UK. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 5,565 deaths related to drug poisoning were registered in England and Wales in 2024. This was the highest number recorded since the current series began in 1993, while the age-standardised rate of drug-poisoning deaths has increased every year since 2012 (Office for National Statistics, 2025).

Alcohol continues to cause significant harm, too. In May 2026, the ONS reported that 9,809 alcohol-specific deaths were registered across the UK in 2024. Although this represented a 6.3% decrease compared with 2023, the number of deaths remains considerably higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic (Office for National Statistics, 2026).

Behind every statistic are people, relationships and families. There are those living with addiction, those beginning treatment, those in recovery and those who may relapse and begin again. Alongside them are the people who love them.

Recovery does not have to look the same for everyone

Recovery is rarely a single event or a perfectly straight line. For the person experiencing addiction, it might involve treatment, abstinence, harm reduction, rebuilding relationships or creating a different life. For family members, recovery can look different.

It might mean learning that you cannot control another person's choices. It might mean establishing boundaries after years of crisis. It could mean talking honestly about what you have experienced, reconnecting with parts of your own life that have been neglected, or simply sitting in a room with people who understand why loving someone with an addiction can be so complicated. Sometimes, family recovery also means accepting that looking after yourself is not the same as abandoning the person you love.

The importance of being heard

One of the most powerful things support can offer is the knowledge that you are not alone.

Government guidance on recovery support recognises the value of peer-based approaches, including their potential to reduce isolation and stigma and enable people to receive support from others with relevant lived experience (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, 2025).

That sense of connection matters for families, too. There can be enormous relief in speaking to somebody without having to explain every detail first. Someone who understands the cancelled plans, the difficult phone calls, the uncertainty, the hope, the disappointment and the complicated mixture of love and frustration that addiction can bring into a family. At Families Out Loud, our focus is on creating spaces where family members can talk openly and without judgement.

This Recovery Month, remember the families

Recovery deserves to be celebrated. Every person rebuilding their life deserves recognition for the work that takes. But this Recovery Month, we also want to recognise the parents, partners, siblings, children, friends and carers walking alongside them – as well as those whose loved ones may not yet be ready or able to seek recovery.

You do not have to wait for your loved one to change before seeking support for yourself.

You do not need to have all the answers. And you do not have to navigate addiction in your family alone.

Families Out Loud provides confidential support for families affected by someone else's addiction, including peer support groups, one-to-one support and dedicated support for young people aged 13–17.

This Recovery Month, the message is not only that recovery is possible. It is that families deserve the opportunity to recover, too.

References

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (2025). Recovery support services and lived experience initiatives: Part 1 – introducing recovery, peer support and lived experience initiatives. Department of Health and Social Care.

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (2025). Recovery support services and lived experience initiatives: Part 2 – recovery support services: evidence and current provision. Department of Health and Social Care.

Office for National Statistics (2025). Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2024 registrations. Released 17 October 2025.

Office for National Statistics (2026). Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK: registered in 2024. Released 11 May 2026.