Family values and strong family bonds are the backbone of life. It greatly impacts who we are as a person. With strong values a person learns that they are an important part of a family unit. Family support and lines of communication are greater in a family with strong family bonds. Strong family bonds are an essential building block for a successful future and a happy, healthy lifestyle.

A strong family bond is the reason that I am alive today and able to share this with you. I have fought many "demons" in my lifetime. I have overcome a drinking problem, a drug abuse problem, numerous suicide attempts as a teenager and a few as an adult. I have been fighting an eating disorder for 14 years, I have been a victim of rape and abuse, I have nearly been killed by people I knew twice. If it had not been for my strong bond with my family, I would surely be dead by now. The bond that I have with my family is the greatest gift I have ever known. It is priceless and it is important that you have this strong bond to help make each member of the family know that they will never have to deal with anything alone as long as they have family.

Everything that we learn starts at home. If we learn that it is an important to build and sustain our family bonds, that will also become an asset to our life outside of the home. Open communication is a very widely overlooked thing in todays society. The average American mother only spends 30 minutes a day talking with her children. In the course of one year that daily average becomes almost eight 24 hour days. The average American father is half of that total average...a whopping four 24 hour days per year. Communication is an important key to providing a strong family bond. Sit down to dinner with family and it can dramatically improve the life of you and your family by strengthening the bonds. Also, children who have frequent family dinners are less likely to use drugs and alcohol or have friends who abuse drugs. They also perform better in school, have a stronger family bond, have healthier eating habits and suffer from less stress than those who do not have this opportunity. Share about your day and what is going on in your life so that your family can support you in the things that matter to you.

Family support is another value that is essential to living a happy healthy life. I have seen too many times in my life a person who attempts suicide, runs away from home, abuses drugs and alcohol, gets into fights and arguments, is arrested, develops an eating disorder and/or suffers needlessly from mental health problems. These people often have an increased amount of stress and a decreased knowledge of coping skills and most likely no support or a minimal amount of support from their family. Building a strong family bond and sustaining it can dramatically improve the chances of these things happening to someone you love. I have been there and my husband also went through years of his life not ever realizing why he had gotten into trouble, had drug and alcohol problems and never seemed to be happy under any circumstances. He talked to a counselor that then realized and pointed out to him that his problems started whenever his "father" walked out of his life, he had lost something that was truly important to him, the bond that he had with his father.

As you can clearly see, it is detrimental that a person know and feel that strong bond between family members, it truly affects everything in life and may also determine how you deal with life and situations that arise. Either way. Strong family bonds are something that can never be broke but continue to enrich your life.

Learn more about this author, Melinda Cook.
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