Alcohol Relapse and When Dishonesty is a Form of Enabling
It is fascinating to bring up something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcohol dependency of another family member evidently do not know. It seems to be that by shielding the alcohol addicted individual with lies and deceitfulness to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in actual fact created a condition that makes it easier for the alcohol dependent individual to carry on and move forward with his or her negative, destructive existence.
Clearly, rather than helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have essentially become enablers who have involuntarily helped negatively affect the alcohol dependent person’s drinking problem even more.
Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcohol dependent person will continue drinking in a hazardous and irresponsible manner and experience a range of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include employment difficulties, poor health, deteriorating relationships, diminished mental functioning, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DUIs), and considerable financial problems.
Relapses Can and Do Transpire
According to the research findings and statistics on alcohol addiction, another key alcohol dependency issue concerns alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcoholic has fruitfully undergone alcohol addiction treatment and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first glance, this predicament flies in the face of commonsensical thinking and appears to be so unbelievable that it forces a person to wonder why anyone who has gone through the terror of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol rehabilitation and in turn after achieving recovery. There are, of course, many reasonable reasons for this.
It should be highlighted, nonetheless that alcoholism research that has centered on the lasting effects of alcohol dependency has shown that long after the alcohol dependent person has terminated his or her drinking, fundamental changes in the way in which the alcohol dependent person’s brain functions are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol addicted individual has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the alterations that have come about in the brain is to start drinking again.
The Need for An Important Lifestyle Change
There are other reasons why numerous recovering alcohol dependent individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after reaching sobriety. According to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make a successful recovery, the alcohol dependent person needs new ways of reacting and thinking in order to deal more successfully with difficult alcohol-related circumstances 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 time when the alcohol dependent individual was drinking excessively; 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 individual to engage in hazardous drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these situations may not only negate long standing alcohol recovery for the alcohol addicted individual but they can also lead to relapse and thus circumvent one’s sobriety.
The Good News: First-Class Help is Available Almost Everywhere
In an attempt to “protect†the family alcoholic, family members can in point of fact cause inadvertent harm by enabling the destructive drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted person.
The substance abuse research literature validates the fact that most individuals 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 dejected or beleaguered when a relapse manifests itself.
Happily, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up treatment and education have resulted in more productive, long-term alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency rehab results, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent persons attain enduring sobriety.