Family Crisis

No matter what kind of preparation a family makes, each family will have a family crisis. But what is a crisis? A crisis is sometimes seen as just a problem, but it is much more than the problem. The problem is just the initial event. There is a lot to a crisis, which encompasses everything including the problem, reaction, and opportunity.

  A crisis is something that can come in and threaten family intimacy. It is an event that can literally make or break a family. After the initial stressor of the crisis, comes the opportunity that we are talking about. The ways that we choose to react and deal with the crisis gives us the opportunity to either strengthen or destroy our family. There are a variety of ways that we can choose to cope with a crisis. Some are effective, and others are not. Crisis’s come without a choice, but we do choose what to do next. A family with an alcoholic parent can use denial to refuse to accept the fact that someone has a drinking problem or that the drinking will soon just stop. The Family can also take the opportunity to come together and tackle the problem together as a unit. The alcoholic has the choice to continue to drink or to stop drinking, but the rest of the family will be closely bonded together and the act of drinking will not be accepted, so the drinker will have to choose between being a part of the family unit or not, and the alcoholic no longer threatens the family intimacy, only the intimacy between him/her and the family. A family that experiences the death of a loved one can choose to blame each other of shortcomings, but they are also given the opportunity to mourn together and lift each other up, strengthening the intimacy that binds a family together.