Alcohol Relapse and When Helping the Alcoholic Becomes Detrimental
Posted by admin - 21/05/09 at 08:05 pmIt is remarkable to articulate something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not comprehend. It seems that by shielding the alcohol dependent person with falsehoods and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in essence created a condition that makes it easier for the alcohol addicted person to continue and go forward with his or her hurtful, devastating existence.
In fact, rather than helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have in fact become enablers who have unintentionally helped deteriorate the alcoholic’s problem drinking situation even more.
The Probability of a Relapse is Real
Another key alcoholism issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcoholic has effectively gone through alcohol dependency rehabilitation and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation seems contradictory to sound thinking and looks so unbelievable that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has experienced the dejection of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol treatment and in turn after reaching sobriety. There are, for sure, numerous plausible reasons for this.
It should be noted, then again that alcoholism research that has focused on the enduring outcomes of alcohol dependency has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcohol addicted person has quit his or her drinking, critical transformations in the way in which the alcohol addicted person’s brain operates are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol dependent person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the transformations that have occurred in the brain is to begin drinking once again.
A Requirement for A Drastic Lifestyle Change
There are additional reasons why numerous recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. In accordance to the alcoholism research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol addicted individual needs new ways of reacting and thinking in order to deal more competently with taxing alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.
Conditions such as returning to the same alcohol addictive atmosphere or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the days when the alcohol addicted individual was drinking abusively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can prompt psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted individual to engage in hazardous drinking once again. Sadly, all of these situations may not only contradict lasting alcohol recovery for the alcoholic but they can also lead to relapse and as a result go against one’s alcohol recovery.
Summary
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent individual, family members can essentially cause unintended harm by enabling the destructive drinking behavior of the alcoholic.
The substance abuse research literature confirms the fact that most people who effectively complete alcohol counseling experience at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get dejected or beleaguered when a relapse manifests itself.
