Alcohol Dependency, Alcohol Relapse, and Enabling
It is worthy of note to bring up something that family members who have been unfavorably affected by the alcohol addiction of another family member evidently do not understand. It appears that by protecting the alcohol addicted person with falsehoods and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have essentially created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent person to continue and move forward with his or her hurtful, destructive existence.
Undeniably, rather than helping the alcohol addicted individual and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have mistakenly helped deteriorate the alcohol addicted person’s drinking problem even more.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol addicted individual will continue drinking in an excessive and hazardous manner and go through a range of “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 Probability 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 addicted individual has successfully gone through alcoholism therapy and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this situation seems contradictory to commonsensical thinking and sounds so unbelievable that it forces an individual to question why anyone who has lived through the misery of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol counseling and in turn after achieving recovery. There are, of course, more than a few credible reasons for this.
It should be pointed out, then again that alcohol addiction research that has centered on the long-term effects of alcohol dependency has shown that long after the alcohol addicted person has stopped his or her drinking, major changes in the way in which the alcohol addicted person’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 alterations that have come about in the brain is to begin drinking once again.
The Need for A Crucial Lifestyle Modification
There are additional reasons why quite a lot of recovering alcohol addicted individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after reaching sobriety. In accordance to the alcoholism research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol dependent person needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more successfully with tough alcohol-related situations 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 dependent person was drinking irresponsibly; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can bring forth memories that can prompt psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted person to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these circumstances may not only counteract enduring alcohol recovery for the alcohol addicted person but they can also result in relapse and thus circumvent 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 actually cause unplanned damage by enabling the negative drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent person.
The substance abuse research literature confirms the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol therapy 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 stressed out when a relapse manifests itself.
Happily, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and education have resulted in more effective, long standing alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction rehab outcomes, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent individuals accomplish lasting alcohol recovery.