It is an unscientific guess, but at this point the individual has about a 40 percent chance of being sober by the end of the year. Not only is the family dealing with all the addiction-related problems, but they are also facing the difficulties posed by the psychiatric problem. This two-fold challenge is most dramatic in cases where patients have problems such as obsessive compulsive disorder or severe psychotic symptoms. Some families also have to learn to see the addiction as an illness requiring extensive treatment, not just an extension of the psychiatric problem. To put it another way, dual diagnosis is challenging for the families because they have things compounded geometrically, depending on the severity.
Families are the first to experience the disease, and the last to recover.