Enabling, Alcohol Relapse, and Alcohol Addiction

It is fascinating to bring up something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcoholism of another family member apparently do not grasp. It appears that by protecting the alcohol addicted person with falsehoods and deceit to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in reality created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcoholic to persevere and move forward with his or her hurtful, detrimental way of living.

Clearly, instead of helping the alcohol addicted person and themselves, these family members have in truth become enablers who have involuntarily helped negatively affect the alcohol dependent individual’s drinking problem even more.

Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol addicted person will continue drinking in an excessive and abusive manner and go through diverse “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 From Time to Time

According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol dependency, another key alcohol addiction issue has to do with alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol dependent person has fruitfully gone through alcohol addiction rehab and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation seems contradictory to sound thinking and sounds so unrealistic that it forces a person to question why anyone who has experienced the wretchedness of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol counseling and in turn after attaining sobriety. There are, to be sure, more than a few conceivable reasons for this.

It should be noted, conversely that alcoholism research that has focused on the lasting outcomes of alcoholism has shown that long after the alcohol addicted person has quit his or her drinking, critical changes in the way in which the alcohol dependent individual’s brain works are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol dependent individual has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the modifications that have come about in the brain is to start drinking once again.

A Requirement for An Essential Lifestyle Modification

There are other reasons why several recovering alcohol addicted persons return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after achieving sobriety. In accordance to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcoholic needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more efficiently with difficult 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 alcohol dependent individual was drinking irresponsibly; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can elicit memories that can prompt psychological stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcoholic to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these circumstances may not only negate long lasting alcohol recovery for the alcohol dependent person but they can also result in relapse and as a result counteract one’s sobriety.

The Good News: First-Class Help is Available Almost Everywhere

In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent individual, family members can essentially cause inadvertent damage by enabling the negative drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted individual.

The addiction research literature highlights the fact that most individuals who effectively complete alcohol therapy experience at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get depressed or beleaguered when a relapse takes place.

Fortunately, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and training have resulted in more productive, ongoing alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction therapeutic results, have helped reduce alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted individuals achieve long standing alcohol recovery.