Sep 02 2009
Enabling, Alcohol Addiction, and Alcohol Relapse
It is interesting to mention something that family members who have been unfavorably affected by the alcoholism of another family member apparently do not comprehend. It seems that by protecting the alcohol dependent individual with lies and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have essentially created a condition that makes it easier for the alcoholic to persist and press forward with his or her hurtful, devastating style of life.
In fact, instead of helping the alcohol dependent person and themselves, these family members have in truth become enablers who have inadvertently helped negatively affect the alcohol addicted person’s drinking problem even further.
The Probability of a Relapse is Real
Another key alcohol dependency issue concerns alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted individual has successfully undergone alcohol dependency therapy 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 unbelievable that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has gone through the wretchedness of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol treatment and in turn after achieving recovery. There are, for sure, many rational reasons for this.
It should be pointed out, nevertheless that alcohol addiction research that has centered on the lasting consequences of alcohol addiction has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcohol dependent individual has halted his or her drinking, critical changes in the way in which the alcoholic’s brain functions are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the transformations that have come about in the brain is to begin drinking again.
The Necessity for A Radical Lifestyle Change
There are other reasons why quite a few recovering alcohol addicted individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. According to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of reacting and thinking in order to deal more competently with tough 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 individual was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can prompt psychological stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent person to engage in hazardous drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these circumstances may not only get in the way of long standing sobriety for the alcohol addicted individual but they can also lead to relapse and consequently short-circuit one’s sobriety.
Conclusion
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted person, family members can in point of fact cause unintentional harm by enabling the destructive drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted individual.
The alcohol abuse research literature confirms the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol counseling go through at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get depressed or beleaguered when a relapse manifests itself.
Fortunately, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and training have resulted in more productive, lasting alcohol abuse and alcoholism rehab outcomes, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent individuals attain enduring alcohol recovery.
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