Alcohol Relapse, Enabling, and Alcohol Dependency
It is interesting to articulate something that family members who have been adversely affected by the alcoholism of another family member obviously do not understand. It appears that by protecting the alcohol dependent individual with falsehoods and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have actually created a situation that makes it easier for the alcohol addicted person to persevere and press forward with his or her unsafe, destructive existence.
Clearly, rather than helping the alcohol addicted individual and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have inadvertently helped worsen the drinking problems of the problem drinker even more.
The Probability of a Relapse is Real
Another key alcohol addiction issue has to do with 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 circumstance flies in the face of common sense and looks so improbable that it forces one to speculate why anyone who has lived through the awfulness of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol treatment and in turn after achieving sobriety. There are, of course, more than a few credible reasons for this.
It should be mentioned, then again that alcohol addiction research that has focused on the long-term effects of alcohol addiction has shown that long after the alcohol dependent person has halted his or her drinking, fundamental transformations in the way in which the alcohol dependent individual’s brain operates are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol dependent person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the changes that have occurred in the brain is to begin drinking once again.
The Need for An Important Lifestyle Transformation
There are other reasons why quite a lot of recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. According to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol dependent person needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more competently with challenging alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.
Circumstances 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 addicted person was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can bring about memories that can set off psychological tension or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted person to engage in excessive drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these circumstances may not only work against long lasting alcohol recovery for the alcohol addicted person but they can also result in relapse and therefore circumvent one’s sobriety.
Conclusion
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcoholic, family members can in fact cause unplanned damage by enabling the negative drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent person.
The alcoholism research literature confirms the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol therapy experience at least one relapse. Alcoholics and their family members need to know this so that they do not get defeated or beleaguered when a relapse happens.
Happily, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up counseling and education have resulted in more successful, long standing alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction rehab results, have helped reduce alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted persons accomplish long-term sobriety.
Related posts:
- When Drinking Becomes a Serious Problem and a Mental Health Issue
- A Married Couple Becomes Apprehensive About Their Abusive and Excessive Drinking and Wonders If They Exhibit Any Alcohol Dependency Signs or Mental Health Issues
- The Critical Factors in A Productive Alcohol Abuse Intervention
- A Young Woman Tries Very Hard to Abstain From Drinking, Suffers Through Alcohol Withdrawals, Ascertains the Fact That She is an Alcoholic, and Makes Up Her Mind to Seek Alcohol Counseling
- A Young Woman Requires Counseling for Her Mental Illness and For Her Drug and Alcohol Dependency
Tagged with: alcohol abuse • alcohol addiction • alcohol dependency • alcohol rehab • alcohol treatment • alcoholism • drinking problems • enabling • mental health • self improvement • sobriety
Filed under: Panic attacks and anxiety general
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