Enabling, Alcohol Addiction, and Alcohol Relapse
It is fascinating to articulate something that family members who have been adversely affected by the alcohol addiction of another family member evidently do not grasp. It seems to be that by shielding the alcohol dependent 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 addicted individual to carry on and go forward with his or her unsafe, detrimental lifestyle.
To be sure, rather than helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have essentially become enablers who have inadvertently 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 abusive manner and go through a range of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include diminished mental functioning, deteriorating relationships, serious financial problems, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DWIs), employment difficulties, and ill health.
Relapses Can and Do Occur
According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcohol dependency issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol dependent person has successfully undergone alcoholism treatment and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this circumstance seems contradictory to logical thinking and appears to be so implausible that it forces a person to speculate 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 attaining sobriety. There are, to be sure, numerous reasonable reasons for this.
It should be noted, then again that alcohol dependency research that has focused on the lasting outcomes of alcoholism has revealed that long after the alcohol addicted person has quit his or her drinking, fundamental modifications in the way in which the alcoholic’s brain functions are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcoholic has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the transformations that have occurred in the brain is to engage in drinking again.
A Requirement for An Essential Lifestyle Change
There are even more reasons why more than a few recovering alcohol addicted individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. In accordance to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcoholic needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more effectively with challenging alcohol-related situations that will take place.
Conditions 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 alcoholic was drinking in a hazardous manner; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can set off psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent individual to engage in abusive drinking once again. Sadly, all of these situations may not only negate enduring alcohol recovery for the alcoholic but they can also result in relapse and as a result cancel out one’s sobriety.
The Good News: First-Class Help is Available Almost Everywhere
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted individual, family members can in point of fact cause unintended destruction by enabling the unhealthy drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent individual.
The drug abuse research literature confirms the fact that most individuals who successfully complete alcohol treatment experience at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get crestfallen or stressed out when a relapse manifests itself.
Luckily, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up treatment and training have resulted in more productive, enduring alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency therapeutic results, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted persons achieve long lasting alcohol recovery.
