Alcohol Addiction, Alcohol Relapse, and Enabling
It is fascinating to articulate something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcoholism of another family member apparently do not comprehend. It seems to be that by shielding the alcohol addicted individual with falsehoods and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have essentially created a situation that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent individual to persevere and advance with his or her unsafe, detrimental lifestyle.
In fact, rather than helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have basically become enablers who have inadvertently helped deteriorate the alcohol addicted person’s drinking problem even more.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol dependent person will continue drinking in a hazardous and abusive manner and suffer from a range of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include diminished mental functioning, employment difficulties, poor health, deteriorating relationships, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DUIs), and considerable financial problems.
Relapses Can and Do Transpire
According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcohol addiction issue has to do with alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted person has fruitfully gone through alcohol dependency treatment and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this predicament seems contradictory to sound thinking and appears to be so unbelievable that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has experienced the horrors of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol rehabilitation and in turn after achieving recovery. There are, without a doubt, many plausible reasons for this.
It should be highlighted, nonetheless that alcohol addiction research that has focused on the lasting effects of alcohol dependency has revealed that long after the alcohol dependent individual has quit his or her drinking, major transformations in the way in which the alcohol addicted individual’s brain functions are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol dependent person has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the modifications that have taken place in the brain is to begin drinking once again.
The Need for A Major Lifestyle Modification
There are other reasons why numerous recovering alcohol dependent persons 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 alcoholic needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more successfully with taxing alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.
Issues 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 dependent person was drinking abusively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these circumstances can elicit memories that can prompt psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent individual to engage in excessive drinking once again. Sadly, all of these situations may not only contradict lasting sobriety for the alcohol addicted individual but they can also lead to relapse and as a result counteract one’s sobriety.
The Good News: There’s a Lot of Hope for a Lasting Recovery
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted person, family members can in fact cause unplanned harm by enabling the unhealthy drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted person.
The addiction research literature confirms the fact that most individuals who effectively complete alcohol therapy go through at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get defeated or stressed out when a relapse takes place.
Fortunately, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up counseling and education have resulted in more successful, enduring alcohol abuse and alcoholism treatment results, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted persons accomplish long lasting alcohol recovery.
