Alcohol Dependency, Alcohol Relapse, and Enabling
It is worthy of note to articulate something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcohol dependency of another family member obviously do not comprehend. It seems to be that by shielding the alcohol addicted individual with lies and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in actual fact created a condition that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent person to continue and advance with his or her negative, detrimental style of life.
To be sure, rather than helping the alcohol dependent individual and themselves, these family members have in fact become enablers who have unintentionally helped worsen the alcohol addicted person’s drinking problem even further.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcoholic will continue drinking in a hazardous and irresponsible manner and experience different “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DUIs), employment difficulties, considerable financial problems, poor health, diminished mental functioning, and deteriorating relationships.
The Possibility of a Relapse is Real
According to the research literature and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcohol addiction issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol dependent individual has fruitfully gone through alcohol addiction treatment and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this circumstance seems contradictory to rational thinking and looks so far-fetched that it forces a person to speculate why anyone who has gone through the horrors of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol rehab and in turn after achieving sobriety. There are, to be sure, more than a few feasible reasons for this.
It should be explained, conversely that alcohol addiction research that has focused on the long standing consequences of alcohol dependency has shown that long after the alcohol dependent individual has stopped his or her drinking, key changes in the way in which the alcohol addicted individual’s brain functions are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol addicted individual has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the modifications that have occurred in the brain is to begin drinking again.
A Requirement for A Radical Lifestyle Transformation
There are even more reasons why numerous recovering alcohol addicted individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. According to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent individual needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more successfully with tough 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 time when the alcohol addicted person was drinking excessively; 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 dependent individual to engage in excessive drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these situations may not only counteract long-term sobriety for the alcohol addicted person but they can also lead to relapse and therefore counteract one’s alcohol recovery.
The Good News: There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent person, family members can essentially cause inadvertent harm by enabling the harmful drinking behavior of the alcoholic.
The drug abuse research literature demonstrates the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol treatment experience at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get dejected or stressed out when a relapse takes place.
Fortunately, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up rehab and training have resulted in more productive, long standing alcohol abuse and alcoholism rehab outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcoholics reach ongoing sobriety.