Getting drug addiction help will involve contacting either professional services of some sort or a 12 step treatment program. This is what is largely out there and easy to find in terms of recovery and treatment. The professional services will include things such as in-patient and residential treatment centers that might include a full medical detox as well. In addition to rehab, an addict could also seek help from meetings, therapy groups, or from professional counseling.
Many people might use these types of services after they leave treatment as a form of aftercare.
It can be quite a struggle to get someone else to take action and do something about their problem and ultimately you will find that we cannot really change anyone, only ourselves. But we can influence their behavior and their decisions over the long run by becoming more conscious of how we interact with them.
In particular, we need to stop enabling people if we play some role in their drug or alcohol use. This includes helping them out when they get into trouble or calling in sick for them if they miss work due to their drug use. We can make a big difference in the addict’s life by choosing not to enable their drinking or using.
If you believe that you have some sort of issue with alcohol then your first course of action is to properly diagnose your problem. What is the exact scope of your problem with alcohol and how deep does it really go? Is your problem really with drinking too much or does your problem really get nasty when you actually stop drinking?
If you tend to drink large amounts but can basically go without booze for long periods of time when you want to, then you are likely just a problem drinker.If you don’t have the ability to walk away from alcohol for long time frames without going nuts about it then you are probably addicted.If you are not sure if you are an alcoholic or if you are a problem drinker, then you should do these trial runs:
1) Allow yourself to have, at the most, one drink per day for the next half a year, never to go over that amount. No freebies allowed.
2) No drinking allowed, at all, for at least half a year. No sneaking an extra drink in here or there allowed.
The best way to help an alcoholic is through modifying your own behavior, not attempting to control theirs. This means that you should not attempt to control their behavior. Don’t make feeble pleas with them to miraculously stop drinking. Don’t scream at them or try to guilt them or get into a yelling match with them. None of these tactics work at all. At best these tactics fail outright. At worst they drive the alcoholic deeper into drinking and isolation. If you’ve made it to this breaking point then you’ll want to know how to help an alcoholic.
The first thing you need to know is that an alcoholic who tries to change for other people is not going to make it in recovery. What you must understand is that the choice has to be theirs. You and everyone else cannot make that decision for them. Not you, not a jail cell, not their parents, nobody.
The second idea for you to grasp is that this decision that will eventually be made by the alcoholic will be motivated by pain. Ultimately this is how it has to go. The alcoholic will finally decide that they have had enough pain and misery in their life and decide it is time for change. This is the only driving force that makes real change. You could promise them a life of paradise if they quit drinking and this will do nothing to motivate them. The motivation has to come from pain and fear and misery.
If you or someone you know needs alcoholism help then you might want to consider taking action. So what is the ideal action to take? In my opinion the best action for the alcoholic is to find a treatment center or drug rehab facility that has a medical detox and check themselves into it. This is the best course of action for a number of reasons:
1) Safety – it is actually very dangerous to stop drinking alcohol and in fact the withdrawal from alcohol can kill a person. This might sound ridiculous but it’s actually more dangerous to stop drinking cold turkey than it is to continue nursing a bottle until you can get professional help. So what you want to do is get to a treatment center with a full medical detox unit so that you can sober up safely.
2) Support – there is a lot of peer support in a drug rehab facility and this is based on the other residents who are in the same boat as you are. Having peers in early recovery who are on the same path as you are is very important because you can learn so much from each other.
