Financial Anxiety among Caregiving Parents of Adult Children with a Substance Use Disorder

Background Most persons with substance use disorder (SUD) live in family settings. In the absence of adequate mental health services, mothers are often called upon to provide care for their adult children with SUD. Despite positive outcomes such as decreased rates of hospitalization associated with family involvement, mothers are often stigmatized within the health care systems as contributors to trauma and/or family dysfunction. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore mothers’ lived experience of caring for adult children with SUD. Method Guided by critical feminist theory, this study used interpretive descriptive qualitative research design to identify patterns within mothers’ experiences for practical relevance and application to service provision. Results The findings yielded in this study identified mothers’ experiences as: longing for wellness, identity as loving mother, loss, anticipatory grief, shame and blame and feeling excluded from services. Ultimately, the findings from this study extend the limited research to date on mothers’ experiences of stigma, especially when they are blamed for their child’s illness. Conclusions Findings from this study advocate for family-centered approaches that attend to mothers’ unique experience, from their standpoint, and offer recommendations for change to service provision.

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Depression, anxiety, and stress from substance-use disorder among family members in Iceland

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.1177/1455072518766129 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 165-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jóna Ólafsdóttir ◽

Steinunn Hrafnsdóttir ◽

Tarja Orjasniemi

Keyword(s):

Substance Use ◽

General Population ◽

Family Member ◽

Substance Use Disorder ◽

Adult Children ◽

Addiction Treatment ◽

Substance Abusers ◽

Family Members ◽

Mental States ◽

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale

Aims: This research was designed to explore the extent to which the use of alcohol or drugs by one member of a family affects the psychosocial state of other family members. The study asks whether family members of substance abusers are more likely to report increased depression, anxiety and stress then the general population in Iceland? Are there significant differences between family members; e.g., spouses, parents, adult children and siblings by gender, age, education and income? Data and methods: The instrument used for this purpose is the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), which is designed to measure those three related mental states. It was administered to 143 participants (111 women and 32 men) with ages ranging from 19–70 years on the first day of a four-week group therapy programme for relatives of substance use disorder (SUD) at The Icelandic National Centre for Addiction Treatment (SÁÁ) from August 2015 to April 2016. Thirty participants are adult children of a parent with SUD, 47 are a spouse, 56 are parents of a child with SUD and 10 are siblings. The subscales of the DASS for depression, anxiety, and stress were utilised to examine which family member – parent, child, partner, or sibling – presented the behaviour associated with SUD. Results: 36% or more of the respondents in all three subscales had average, serious, or very serious depression, anxiety, and/or stress. This is higher than in DASS studies of the general population in Iceland. However, the analysis indicates that it made little difference to the family’s wellbeing which family member was affected by SUD.

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