Enabling, Alcohol Addiction, and Alcohol Relapse
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.
It should be highlighted, nevertheless that alcoholism research that has centered on the long-term effects of alcohol addiction has shown that long after the alcohol addicted individual has discontinued his or her drinking, fundamental modifications in the way in which the alcoholic’s brain works are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcoholic has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the alterations that have come about in the brain is to engage in drinking once again.
The Need for a Far Reaching Lifestyle Change
There are other reasons why quite a lot of recovering alcoholics return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after reaching sobriety. According to the alcoholism research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent person needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more efficiently with challenging alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.
Conditions such as returning to the same alcohol addictive environment or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the days when the alcohol dependent person was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can elicit memories that can prompt psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent person to engage in excessive drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these situations may not only counteract long standing sobriety for the alcohol dependent individual but they can also result in relapse and consequently cancel out one’s sobriety.
Conclusion
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted person, family members can in point of fact cause unplanned damage by enabling the harmful drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent person.
The substance abuse research literature confirms the fact that most individuals who successfully complete alcohol counseling experience at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get crestfallen or beleaguered when a relapse manifests itself.
