What is the role of family in a person's behavioral addiction?

What is the role of family in a person's behavioral addiction?

Marc Kern (Addiction Expert, Director of Addiction Alternatives) gives expert video advice on: How is a behavioral addiction similar to a substance behavioral addiction?; What is an "addictive personality"?; What can be done about an addictive personality? and more...

We can go so far to say that there are actually schools of thought that say that addictions do not lay within the individual, they lay within the family. It is not that we have sort of a scapegoat or an individual who has the addictive problem, but in actuality there is an active collusion with everyone that interacts with the addict and they too are engaged in many sort of ritualistic behaviours, we call them even addictions, that support or endorse the addictive behaviours; look the other way when they shouldn't be looking the other way. So, the family is intimately involved, especially if it's a close family rather than someone who has left home, become self-sufficient and gotten involved in these addictive behaviours. I can't stress enough actually how important the role of the family is, and any time I recommend a client to get into treatment for their addiction, I recommend the family do it as well. Yet, it's amazing to see how resistant the family is to own any component of the problem. They don't want to have anything to do with it. "It's that person's problems, they're off, they should be fixed, and we have nothing to do with it." That's not the case, and that's part of the denial of the family that keeps the perpetuation going.