Both illness and recovery require substantial energy of one's family and social network in adapting to the difficulties of the illness and the challenges of recovery. The responses of family members to illness and disability and to stages of recovery represent normal rather than pathological reactions. Family recovery is the process of finding the best ways to adapt to the presence and then the absence of illness as an organizing motif within the family system. There may be developmental stages of family recovery that parallel the stages of personal recovery. Family members make these changes in their own style and at their own pace. Recovery-oriented systems of care must by definition become family-oriented systems of care.