Last few things I learned...

CODEPENDENCY...

I AM POWERLESS TO MY MOM'S ADDICTION.

My life is controlled by my mom's addiction.

By enabling, I am not rescuing my mom...it only rescues her disease.

Stress comes from not reacting or dealing with your emotions.

DETACH: Don't Even Think About Changing Her

Family Weekend at Hanley Part 2

In family program, you stay with your group almost the entire time (there are 1-2 hours to visit with your loved one). You eat meals with your group and spend the rest of the day together in lectures about addiction.

We learned about the Jellinek Chart:

I thought that was interesting because I related to almost every part of it. It talks about how what happens to the chemically dependent person is mimicked by the family members.

For example:

Increased Tolerance: for the addict this means "needing more of the substance to obtain the desired effect", but for the family member is means "putting up with more of the using behaviors of the addict".

We also learned about enabling and other codependent behaviors. They encouraged us as family members to LET GO of our codependent tendencies.

I think that is partly why I had such a difficult time: letting go (for me) means letting my mom die. I cannot do that. I am not ready to.