It is interesting to mention something that family members who have been adversely affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not comprehend. It appears that by protecting the alcoholic with lies and deceit to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in actual fact created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent person to continue and press forward with his or her injurious, destructive daily life.
Clearly, rather than helping the alcohol dependent individual and themselves, these family members have basically become enablers who have unintentionally helped negatively affect the drinking problems of the problem drinker even more.
Relapses Can and Do Happen
Another key alcohol addiction issue has to do with alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted person has fruitfully undergone alcohol addiction rehab and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this circumstance flies in the face of sound thinking and looks so unrealistic that it forces one to question why anyone who has experienced the horrors of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol treatment and in turn after attaining sobriety. There are, to be sure, many plausible reasons for this.
It should be mentioned, conversely that alcohol addiction research that has centered on the enduring outcomes of alcohol addiction has revealed that long after the alcoholic has terminated his or her drinking, critical transformations in the way in which the alcoholic’s brain operates 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 taken place in the brain is to begin drinking once again.
The Necessity for A Significant Lifestyle Change
There are additional reasons why many recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. In accordance to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more efficiently with demanding alcohol-related circumstances 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 in a hazardous manner; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can prompt psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted person to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these circumstances may not only work against long lasting sobriety for the alcohol dependent individual but they can also result in relapse and thus go against one’s alcohol recovery.
Conclusion
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent individual, family members can in fact cause unintentional destruction by enabling the destructive drinking behavior of the alcoholic.
The substance abuse research literature validates the fact that most individuals who effectively complete alcohol counseling experience at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get down in the dumps or beleaguered when a relapse occurs.
Luckily, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and education have resulted in more productive, long lasting alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction therapeutic outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcoholics reach long-term alcohol recovery.
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