Alcohol Dependency, Enabling, and Alcohol Relapse
It is worthy of note to articulate something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not grasp. It appears that by shielding the alcohol dependent individual with untruths and deceit to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have essentially created a situation that makes it easier for the alcoholic to continue and advance with his or her injurious, destructive existence.
Clearly, instead of helping the alcohol addicted person and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have involuntarily helped worsen the alcohol dependent individual’s drinking problem even more.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol dependent individual will continue drinking in a hazardous and irresponsible manner and go through a variety of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include deteriorating relationships, considerable financial problems, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DUIs), employment difficulties, diminished mental functioning, and poor health.
Relapses Can and Do Happen
According to the research literature and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcohol dependency issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted individual has successfully gone through alcoholism rehabilitation and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this situation flies in the face of logical thinking and sounds so implausible that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has experienced the dreadfulness of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol treatment and in turn after reaching sobriety. There are, to be sure, many rational reasons for this.
It should be explained, then again that alcoholism research that has centered on the long standing outcomes of alcoholism has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcoholic has discontinued his or her drinking, significant transformations in the way in which the alcohol dependent person’s brain functions are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol dependent individual has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the transformations that have taken place in the brain is to begin drinking once again.
A Requirement for An Essential Lifestyle Modification
There are additional reasons why quite a few recovering alcohol addicted persons return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. In accordance 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 taxing alcohol-related situations that will take place.
Circumstances 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 dependent person was drinking abusively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can bring forth memories that can trigger psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent person to engage in excessive drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these circumstances may not only negate long-term alcohol recovery for the alcohol addicted person but they can also result in relapse and therefore short-circuit one’s sobriety.
The Good News: There’s a Lot of Hope for a Lasting Recovery
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent individual, family members can in fact cause inadvertent damage by enabling the unsafe drinking behavior of the alcoholic.
The alcohol abuse research literature confirms the fact that most individuals who successfully complete alcohol rehab go through at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get defeated or overwhelmed when a relapse manifests itself.
Happily, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up counseling and education have resulted in more productive, long standing alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction treatment outcomes, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted individuals accomplish long lasting alcohol recovery.
What I Learned About Alcohol and Drug Addiction in High School
When I was a sophomore in high school, I enrolled into a drug abuse class. At that time period, I did not understand that alcohol abuse in truth was a sub classification of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse and above all about alcohol side effects, 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 individuals all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol rehab and the diverse alcohol rehab facilities that are repeatedly available to people who engage in hazardous drinking.
Damaging Results That are Related to Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse
Some of the detrimental effects associated with alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class certainly worried me. The ruined lives and abundant problems experienced by most alcohol addicted people made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated briefly, I did not want to face the disaster and devastation that alcohol addicted individuals almost always go through.
Let this sink in for a moment. What fifteen-year-old teenager wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What young person wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that consuming alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What adolescent wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related problems before he or she becomes an adult?
What adolescent wants to go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause problems in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that revolves around hazardous drinking?
These issues were so important that I discussed some of them in class throughout the school year. What was completely astonishing to me was the number of students who openly didn’t care about the detrimental results of excessive drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with the truth and how these consequences can shatter their lives. For the first time in my life I started to figure out a saying that my grandfather used to say to me throughout my teen and pre-teen years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.
It’s Beneficial, Important, and Liberating to Keep Away From the Damaging and Unhealthy Effects of Drug and Alcohol Abuse
And even at my young age, I also began to comprehend how liberating, important, and beneficial it is in life to keep yourself from the unhealthy and damaging effects of drug and alcohol abuse.
Do You Have A Problem With Your Drinking?
How do you recognize that you have a problem with your drinking? When is it evident that you are engaging in excessive drinking?
If you have hopelessly attempted to discontinue your drinking or if you sworn to yourself that your drinking days are behind you and then you recognized that you were drinking excessively just a few days later, the odds are exceedingly good that you have drinking problems. The major point of emphasis is that if you have tried to quit drinking and cannot bring this about, then your drinking is controlling you, rather than the other way around.
In a similar manner, if it takes greater amounts of alcohol to get the same “high,” more likely than not you need to become aware that you have a drinking problem.
You may be telling yourself that the justification for your drinking is so that you can lessen your apprehension or get rid of the hurt that you feel. In much the same way, you may be trying to avoid an injurious circumstance and may be looking for something more beneficial, more positive, or less regretful.
As you keep on drinking, however, you will become aware that drinking does not bring forth the same high and you will also become aware that drinking doesn’t help remove whatever produced your sorrow in the first place.
As you continue to drink, regrettably, you may become an alcoholic and, as a consequence, you may add another pivotal problem to cope with rather than becoming aware of more effective and healthy ways of coping with your alcohol generated problems.
The Necessity for an Alcohol Evaluation
If you have figured out that you have a problem with your drinking, maybe the most practical thing you can do for yourself is to call your physician or healthcare practitioner and schedule an appointment for a thorough physical and for an assessment of your drinking behavior.
If you truly think that you have a crucial drinking problem, it might be a good idea to get prepared to find out that you need to get alcohol therapy.
At this point in your life, what are your choices? You can certainly refuse to see your health care practitioner and persevere with your pattern of abusive drinking.
It certainly doesn’t take a genius, nevertheless, to comprehend that repeated, abusive drinking, if left untreated, will get worse over time and in all probability result an early death. Therefore, your most expedient choice is to confront your drinking circumstance and obtain the alcohol rehabilitation you need.
The Deception of the Functioning Alcoholic
It is almost counter intuitive to note the fact that several alcohol addicted people lead busy and active lives and have jobs, vehicles, pets, families, houses, and any number of material possessions similar to people who are not alcohol dependent.
Many of these “functional” alcohol dependent individuals may have never been cited for drunk driving and may have been lucky enough to avoid all alcohol induced legal issues. In spite of this fortunate circumstance, then again, these alcoholics need to drink in order to operate on a daily basis while upholding their facade as they interact with the outside world.
Ask anyone who has seen them when they are engaging in one of their drinking binges or in a drunken stupor or ask a family member about the problem drinker’s alcohol addiction, nevertheless, and they will be quick to articulate the validity of the drinker’s situation and the details about the alcohol dependent person’s drinking condition and about his or her alcohol generated problems.
Why Do Alcohol Dependent Individuals Fail to Focus On Their Drinking Difficulties?
As alcohol dependency research and statistics on alcohol abuse have underlined, no matter how apparent the alcohol-related issues seem to those who interact with the alcoholic, alcohol dependent people often deny that drinking is the source of their alcohol generated predicaments. Not only this, but alcohol dependent people frequently blame their alcohol-related difficulties on other people or upon other situations around them instead of seeing their part in the issue.
The root of the difficulty is that alcohol dependency is a disease of the brain. Once the person has become addicted to alcohol, he or she characteristically resorts to denial, manipulation, and deceit as a way of coping with the fact that his or her drinking is out of control. And to make things more problematic, the experience of alcohol withdrawal symptoms commonly counteracts the alcohol dependent individual’s rare attempts to abruptly quit drinking. As miserable as the alcohol dependent person’s existence is, nevertheless, the positive news is that competent help is usually available – if the alcohol addicted individual reaches out and tries to get alcoholism treatment.
Summary
Owning up to the fact that drinking is triggering problems in your day by day functioning is conceivably the easiest way to find out if you have a drinking problem. Stated another way, if your drinking is bringing about problems with your health, with your employment, in your relationships, with your finances, at school, or with the law, then you have a drinking problem that needs to be resolved.
If you have a problem with your drinking, additionally, this means that you are involving yourself in excessive drinking.
While some people may be able to come to grips with their “alcohol signs,” pinpoint their difficulties, and significantly reduce the quantity and occurrence of their drinking, other drinkers, conversely, need to manage their drinking difficulties by getting quality alcoholism counseling. Additionally, due to their propensity to deny the facts and alter the truth, alcoholics positively need quality alcoholism therapy for their hazardous drinking.