Meet “The Bottle Family”
At this past week’s Family Reach meeting we were introduced to “The Bottle Family”: Willie (functioning addict),
Whilhelmina (co-dependent spouse),
Daryl (hero do-good-er and workaholic),
Bubba (rebellious scapegoat),
Sissy (love-starved, seeking love in all the wrong places),
Jerry (jolly mascot, class clown),
Martha (caretaker), and
Camille (chameleon, drama queen).
This family is a portrait of a dysfunctional family affected by substance abuse. We looked at each family member and the role they portray. Each person is acting out according to the hurt suppressed internally. The common denominator for each member illustrates that no one is grounded in their own identity. At Reach Recovery, we believe in order to be secure and deal with family dysfunction in a healthy way, one’s own identity has to be grounded in Christ. We want to not only educate, but reveal and expose the unhealthy behaviors family members trap themselves into performing. We cannot change the chemically addicted, therefore we must change ourselves and learn how we respond to their actions.
Jarred Wilson
Can the bottle family be purchased?
Reach Recovery
Not that we know of. The only ones we know to exist were made ones created by the individual ministry’s using them. You can contact Dunklin Memorial Camp. They are the originators of this material.
Richard W Skoff
I was at a meeting where we read the whole article on the bottle family. Could you please send me or email me the total article describing each person’s personality and relationship to the alcoholic father.
Reach Recovery
Hi Richard. We use Dunklin Memorial Church’s classroom material with permission. So we cannot distribute it, but if you reach out to them at http://www.dunklin.org, they may be able to provide you the information you need.