My Fitness Edge

It is remarkable to mention something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcoholism of another family member obviously do not realize. It appears that by protecting the alcohol addicted individual with falsehoods and deceit to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have basically created a situation that makes it easier for the alcoholic to carry on and press forward with his or her negative, detrimental daily life.

Without a doubt, instead of helping the alcohol addicted person and themselves, these family members have basically become enablers who have inadvertently helped negatively affect the alcohol addicted individual’s drinking problem even further.

Relapses Can and Do Occur From Time to Time

Another key alcoholism issue concerns alcohol relapses.  Relapses take place when an alcohol dependent individual has effectively undergone alcohol addiction treatment and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later.  At first glance, this circumstance flies in the face of common sense and appears to be so implausible that it forces an individual to wonder why anyone who has lived through the dejection of alcohol dependency can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol treatment and in turn after reaching recovery.  There are, to be sure, more than a few reasonable reasons for this.

It should be explained, nevertheless that alcohol dependency research that has centered on the lasting outcomes of alcohol dependency has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcoholic has halted his or her drinking, key alterations in the way in which the alcohol addicted person’s brain works are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol dependent person has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the changes that have come about in the brain is to start drinking again.

The Necessity for A Drastic Lifestyle Change

There are even more reasons why several recovering alcohol dependent persons return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. According to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcoholic needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more successfully with tough alcohol-related situations that will take place.

Issues 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 dependent person was drinking abusively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can bring about memories that can trigger psychological tension or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent individual to engage in irresponsible drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these situations may not only contradict long standing sobriety for the alcohol addicted person but they can also result in relapse and therefore counteract one’s alcohol recovery.

Conclusion

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

The alcoholism research literature highlights the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol counseling experience at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get dejected or beleaguered when a relapse manifests itself.

Fortunately, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and education have resulted in more productive, long standing alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction treatment outcomes, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted individuals attain long-term alcohol recovery.