Kalia Nikolaou
In the context of this qualitative study, the relationship between heroin addicts and parents were investigated, taking into consideration the trajectory from adolescence to adulthood, including the active periods of substance abuse and rehabilitation clinical trial. The aim of this study was the identification of problematic communicational processes in the relationship between parents and heroin addicts which contribute to the initiation and maintenance of addiction. The study was carried out with the participation of addictive members of the Social Unit of Rehabilitation Center “Ianos” which pertains to the Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki. In this qualitative study, fourteen semi-structured (one to one) interviews have been received by male heroin addicts aged 30 to 45 years old. The results of the qualitative research highlight a dysfunctional dyadic interaction between parents and heroin addicts which affects negatively the parental practices, the subsequent psychological and emotional development of the addict and his direction towards the addiction. This study found that the majority of these families show restricted communicational patterns with double bind dilemmas, triangulation traumas as well as features of rigidness and co-dependency. However, the addict due to chronic social and psycho-emotional deficits hesitates to separate from the family, escalating the communicational, social and economic difficulties in a vicious family circle. Considering the context of therapy, the results of the study recommend that family therapy looks promising as a substantial treatment for the addict and his family as a system. The whole family needs to participate in therapy, to be restructured and more flexible in order to support the rehabilitation process and prevent the relapse of the heroin addict.