Embarking on a personal journey of recovery from family dysfunction and substance use challenges can offer invaluable lessons. Through our effort to understand why our children are using substances, we must focus on the essential concepts of self-regulation, the impact of our parenting styles, and how we can become better parents through building up our own resilience. I offer up my own experience of learning how crucial it is to manage emotions and learn to focus on the present moment in order to create a safe emotional environment for my Family. Together, as a Siblinghood of Parents in Development, we can navigate through the storm, learn from our past, and pave the way for a healthier future for our children and us.

9:35 - From Parents.com, 'What's Your Parenting Style?'
12:20 - Newport Academy's, 'Resilience Toolkit'

OTHER RELATED LINKS
1) Authoritative Parenting: The Pros and Cons, According to a Child Psychologist
2) What's Your Parenting Style?
3) From the Parenting for Brain website, 'Emotional Regulation in Children | A Complete Guide' - as seen on the American Academy of Pediatrics website, and an excerpt here specific to Substance Use: A child who has poor emotion regulation skills throws tantrums constantly and puts a strain on the parent-child relationship. This can impact the climate of the whole household, including siblings or everyone around them, and lead to a negative spiral.

Similarly, for friendships, kids who don’t have the ability to control their big feelings have fewer social skills. They have a harder time making or keeping friends. The inability to self-regulate big emotions can lead to traits like anger, withdrawal, anxiety, or aggressive behavior.

All this can snowball into further negative consequences: Children who are rejected by their peers are at increased risk of dropping out of school, delinquency, substance abuse, and antisocial behavior problems 1 . Those who are withdrawn and rejected by peers are also more likely to get bullied 2 .

Thank you for listening and please visit www.siblinghoodofrecovery.com for free resources, links to organizations, groups and individuals who can offer help in the Journey of Recovery towards healing from substance use disorders. If you like this Podcast, please leave a rating on wherever you're listening. It will help to get the word out.

If there is one message I can leave you with, the best you can offer your loved one battling addiction is love and a healthier you.

Walk gently, my friend.