Adjustment of Family to Alcoholism

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Through a study of members of the AA Auxiliary, the predecessor of Al Anon , the author identified an eight step progression in a family’s adjustment to the presence of an alcoholic member.

The stages are

  1. denial,

  2. efforts to eliminate the problem,

  3. disorganization,

  4. efforts to reorganize despite the problem,

  5. efforts to escape the problem,

  6. which may entail a dissolution of the marriage, and

  7. lead either to reorganization of part of the family or

  8. recovery and reorganization of the whole family

(Jackson, 1954 a classic research article).

See also; The Dynamics of an Alcoholic Family

 

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