Enabling, Alcohol Relapse, and Alcohol Addiction
It is worthy of note to articulate something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcohol dependency of another family member apparently do not know. It seems to be that by shielding the alcoholic with untruths and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in reality created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent person to continue and go forward with his or her harmful, devastating lifestyle.
Without a doubt, rather than helping the alcohol dependent individual and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have inadvertently 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 an excessive and abusive manner and experience diverse “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include considerable financial problems, poor health, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DUIs), employment difficulties, diminished mental functioning, and deteriorating relationships.
The Possibility of a Relapse is Real
According to the research literature and statistics on alcohol addiction, another key alcohol addiction issue concerns alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted individual has effectively undergone alcohol addiction treatment and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this circumstance seems contradictory to common sense and looks so far-fetched that it forces a person to wonder why anyone who has lived through the dejection of alcohol dependency can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol therapy and in turn after attaining sobriety. There are, for sure, numerous feasible reasons for this.
It should be noted, however that alcohol dependency research that has centered on the lasting consequences of alcohol dependency has shown that long after the alcohol addicted person has terminated his or her drinking, critical modifications in the way in which the alcoholic’s brain functions are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the alterations that have occurred in the brain is to engage in drinking again.
The Necessity for A Significant Lifestyle Change
There are additional reasons why several recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. In accordance to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more competently with difficult alcohol-related situations that will take place.
Situations such as returning to the same alcohol addictive atmosphere or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the time when the alcohol addicted individual was drinking in a hazardous manner; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can prompt psychological tension or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted individual to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these circumstances may not only work against long-term sobriety for the alcohol dependent individual but they can also result in relapse and consequently cancel out one’s alcohol recovery.
The Good News: There’s a Lot of Hope for Lasting Sobriety
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted individual, family members can actually cause inadvertent harm by enabling the negative drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted individual.
The addiction research literature validates the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol rehab 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 occurs.
Fortunately, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and training have resulted in more successful, long-term alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction treatment results, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent individuals achieve long standing alcohol recovery.
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