Alcohol Relapse, Dishonesty, and Enabling
It is interesting to point out something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcohol dependency of another family member evidently do not understand. It appears that by protecting the alcohol addicted individual with falsehoods and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in reality created a situation that makes it easier for the alcohol addicted individual to persist and move forward with his or her unsafe, detrimental way of living.
Indeed, instead of helping the alcohol addicted individual and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have inadvertently helped negatively affect the alcoholic’s drinking problem even more.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcoholic will continue drinking in a hazardous and abusive manner and experience a range of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include employment difficulties, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DWIs), ill health, deteriorating relationships, serious financial problems, and diminished mental functioning.
The Probability of a Relapse is Real
According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol addiction, another key alcohol addiction issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcoholic has effectively gone through alcohol dependency treatment and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this predicament flies in the face of common sense and sounds so unrealistic that it forces an individual to question why anyone who has experienced the dreadfulness of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol rehabilitation and in turn after achieving sobriety. There are, of course, many likely reasons for this.
It should be mentioned, conversely that alcohol addiction research that has centered on the long standing effects of alcohol dependency has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcohol dependent individual has stopped his or her drinking, key modifications in the way in which the alcohol addicted individual’s brain functions are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the changes that have taken place in the brain is to start drinking again.
The Need for A Radical Lifestyle Change
There are even more reasons why quite a few recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after reaching sobriety. According to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more effectively with difficult alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.
Conditions such as returning to the same alcohol addictive environment or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the time when the alcoholic was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can bring forth memories that can trigger psychological tension or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted person to engage in abusive drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these circumstances may not only contradict enduring sobriety for the alcohol addicted individual but they can also lead to relapse and therefore short-circuit one’s alcohol recovery.
The Good News: There’s a Lot of Hope for Lasting Sobriety
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcoholic, family members can essentially cause unintentional destruction by enabling the destructive drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted person.
The drug abuse research literature validates the fact that most individuals who successfully complete alcohol rehabilitation 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 occurs.
Luckily, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up treatment and training have resulted in more productive, enduring alcohol abuse and alcoholism treatment results, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent individuals attain enduring sobriety.
Tags: alcohol abuse, alcohol addiction, alcohol dependency, alcohol rehab, alcohol treatment, alcoholism, drinking problems, drug abuse, enabling, sobriety