It is remarkable to point out something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not understand. It appears that by protecting the alcoholic with lies and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have essentially created a condition that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent person to carry on and go forward with his or her harmful, destructive style of life.
Indeed, instead of helping the alcohol dependent person and themselves, these family members have basically become enablers who have inadvertently helped deteriorate the alcohol addicted individual’s problem drinking condition even further.
The Likelihood of a Relapse is Real
Another key alcoholism issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted person has effectively undergone alcohol addiction treatment and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this circumstance flies in the face of logical thinking and appears to be so implausible that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has gone through the awfulness of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol treatment and in turn after achieving sobriety. There are, without a doubt, numerous possible reasons for this.
When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I took a substance abuse class. At that time period, I did not realize that alcohol abuse in reality was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol treatment and the different alcohol rehab that are habitually available to alcohol abusers.
Some of the detrimental effects correlated with alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class absolutely startled me. The ruined lives and countless serious issues experienced by most alcohol addicted people made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated differently, I did not want to face the wreckage and devastation that alcohol dependent individuals almost always encounter.
Think about this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What adolescent wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that consuming alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What teen wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related problems before he or she becomes an adult?
Some people who have had some problems with their drinking might be asking themselves: should I stop drinking entirely, or is there a possibility that I can control it?
First of all, if you figure out a way to moderate successfully then this is awesome. Chances are that you’re not a serious alcoholic if you can limit your drinking and find a way to have fun with it and not lose control anymore. For the rest of us, our drinking problem is defined by the fact that we cannot control our intake – that is the whole crux of the problem right there. So at this point, most of us will be forced to give abstinence a try.
Now this can be deceptive because most addicts and alcoholics actually have the ability to exercise some control for a short time and hold things together. Some alcoholics can even control their drinking for several months or even years at a time. However, take these next two points into account: One, they will not be able to have a good time if they are actively trying to limit how much they consume, and will only be able to limit it through a large effort on their part. And second, no true alcoholic will really hold up with this limited drinking forever; pretty soon they will go overboard and lose control. Ultimately the only solution for a true alcoholic is to stop drinking.
How can we give drug addiction help to addicts who are struggling with addiction?
The real secret to this lies in empowering the drug addict to take control of their own life. But how do we go about doing that? It can be a hard truth to accept, but we can’t really convince another person to change, no matter how much we desire for them to be clean. Addicts have a tendency to do that and it can be extremely difficult to help them when they are resistant to change.
The first issue concerning drug addiction help is in taking a look at your own actions regarding the situation. Are you enabling them to continue using drugs in any way? If so then you might want to take a look at what you’ve been doing to enable the person and seek to change those actions so that you’re not holding them back in any way. For example, if their drug use lands them in jail, and you automatically bail them out of jail, then you are probably enabling them. How? Because you are denying them the natural consequences of their using.
