Karen Bernetti is a yoga and meditation teacher, and recovery support specialist, dedicated to supporting families impacted by a loved one’s addiction. The founder of the Serenity Circle, an online membership community empowering families to grow healthy and strong emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially, she believes…. families need recovery too!
A leader in the Family Recovery Movement, Karen’s mission is to create a world where the shame and stigma around mental health and addiction no longer exist. Having personal experience with addiction in her own family, she understands the fear, anxiety, and isolation that come with loving someone who struggles with addiction.
Her own healing journey began over a decade ago. Her yoga practice and Al-Anon program helped her navigate the darkest days of her life. A believer in the power of mindfulness and community support, the Serenity Circle is a testament to her belief in healing through connection and compassion.
Karen's Notes from the Sidelines:
- Even if children don't grow up in a household with alcoholics, grandparents can be considered qualifiers, because they raise the people who serve as parents to these children and pass on the -isms.
- Al-Anon isn't about healing the drinker in the home or getting them to stop drinking, but rather finding out it's not about them at all and instead, it's about you.
- When you live with addiction, there is chaos, so naturally we want to bring order, but it's difficult to control the uncontrollable, and we've heard many times on this show that we can't change anyone but ourselves. The drinker becomes an obsession.
- The family member living with the addict is likely to become hypervigilant, self-righteous, acting like a martyr, overdoing, overgiving, altering themselves to please, blurring boundaries, and developing insecurities. All of these behaviors together fall into the category of codependency.
- Addiction is contagious and impacts the whole family unit.
- One out of four families are impacted by addiction.
- As of 2022, 46 million people in the United States over the age of 12 have substance use disorder; less than 10% of them seek treatment.
- "We can't incarcerate our way out of this problem... We can't just punish people because they have a problem." Karen speaks about the importance of compassion.
- The problem isn't the substance; it's why are they reaching for it in the first place. It's not about what's wrong with the addict, it's about what happened to them. We should be wondering why, as a society, we are reaching for ways to numb our pain.
- The majority of women is prison have been sexually assaulted. The majority of men in prison have grown up without a father. Many inmates are in prison for drug-related crimes. For many of them, drugs weren't "the problem," they were the solution. We pathologize people and say everything is a disorder; maybe it's the culture that's the problem.
- Families need to get strong - body, mind, and spirit - and only then can we possible lead our loved ones to recovery. One regulated person can impact the whole family unit.
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