It is fascinating to bring up something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not grasp. It seems that by shielding the alcohol addicted individual with untruths and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in effect created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent individual to continue and move forward with his or her damaging, devastating existence.
To be sure, instead of helping the alcohol dependent person and themselves, these family members have in fact become enablers who have unintentionally helped deteriorate the alcohol dependent individual’s drinking problem even more.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol dependent individual will continue drinking in a hazardous manner and experience a variety of “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 Probability of a Relapse is Real
According to the research literature and statistics on alcohol addiction, another key alcoholism issue concerns alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted person has effectively gone through alcoholism therapy and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this circumstance flies in the face of commonsensical thinking and seems so far-fetched that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has experienced the misery of alcohol dependency can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol rehabilitation and in turn after reaching recovery. There are, to be sure, more than a few reasonable reasons for this.
It should be explained, however that alcoholism research that has focused on the lasting effects of alcohol addiction has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcoholic has stopped his or her drinking, fundamental alterations 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 Necessity for A Critical Lifestyle Modification
There are other reasons why more than a few recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after reaching sobriety. According to the alcoholism research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol addicted person needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more effectively with taxing alcohol-related situations 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 days when the alcohol addicted individual was drinking in a hazardous manner; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations 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. Sadly, all of these circumstances may not only counteract ongoing alcohol recovery for the alcohol addicted person but they can also result in relapse and consequently work against 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 individual, family members can actually cause unintentional damage by enabling the negative drinking behavior of the alcohol dependent person.
The substance abuse research literature validates the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol counseling experience at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get down in the dumps or overwhelmed when a relapse occurs.
Happily, taking part in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up treatment and training have resulted in more successful, enduring alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency rehab outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcoholics reach long-term sobriety.
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