It is worthy of note to bring up something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcoholism of another family member evidently do not grasp. It seems that by protecting the alcohol addicted person with untruths and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have actually created a situation that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent individual to carry on and go forward with his or her damaging, detrimental daily life.
To be sure, instead of helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have unintentionally helped deteriorate the alcohol dependent individual’s drinking problem even more.
Relapses Can and Do Occur
Another key alcohol addiction issue has to do with alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted person has fruitfully undergone alcohol dependency treatment and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this predicament flies in the face of rational thinking and appears to be so improbable that it forces a person to wonder why anyone who has lived through the misery of alcohol dependency can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol treatment and in turn after attaining recovery. There are, without a doubt, numerous possible reasons for this.
It should be mentioned, nonetheless that alcoholism research that has centered on the long standing effects of alcohol addiction has revealed that long after the alcohol dependent individual has stopped his or her drinking, key modifications in the way in which the alcohol addicted individual’s brain operates 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 alterations that have taken place in the brain is to engage in drinking again.
A Requirement for A Far Reaching Lifestyle Change
There are additional reasons why quite a few recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. In accordance to the alcoholism research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol addicted individual needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more efficiently with taxing 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 irresponsibly; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these circumstances can bring forth memories that can prompt psychological tension or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcoholic to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Sadly, all of these circumstances may not only contradict lasting alcohol recovery for the alcoholic but they can also lead to relapse and thus go against one’s alcohol recovery.
Conclusion
In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent person, family members can in fact cause inadvertent 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 rehab go through at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get crestfallen or beleaguered when a relapse happens.
Luckily, taking part in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and training have resulted in more effective, long lasting alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency therapeutic outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcoholics attain enduring sobriety.
