It is fascinating to articulate something that family members who have been harmfully affected by the alcohol dependency of another family member obviously do not grasp. It appears that by protecting the alcoholic 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 alcoholic to carry on and advance with his or her unsafe, detrimental daily life.

To be sure, rather than helping the alcohol addicted person and themselves, these family members have in reality become enablers who have inadvertently helped negatively affect the alcohol addicted individual’s drinking problem even more.

Perhaps the real downside of this is that the alcoholic will continue drinking in an excessive and abusive manner and go through a variety of “alcohol side effects.” Some of these side effects include poor health, deteriorating relationships, considerable financial problems, employment difficulties, legal issues (such as getting arrested for one or more DUIs), and diminished mental functioning.

Relapses Can and Do Transpire

According to the research literature and statistics on alcohol addiction, another key alcohol dependency issue has to do with alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcoholic has effectively undergone alcohol addiction therapy and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation seems contradictory to common sense and seems so unrealistic that it forces an individual to question why anyone who has experienced the horrors of alcohol dependency can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol treatment and in turn after achieving sobriety. There are, without a doubt, many rational reasons for this.

It should be noted, conversely that alcohol addiction research that has focused on the long-term effects of alcohol addiction has demonstrated-proven that long after the alcohol dependent individual has discontinued his or her drinking, significant modifications in the way in which the alcohol dependent individual’s brain operates are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol dependent individual has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the modifications that have taken place in the brain is to engage in drinking once again.

A Requirement for A Critical Lifestyle Change

There are even more reasons why quite a few recovering alcoholics return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. In accordance to the alcoholism research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol dependent person needs new ways of acting and thinking in order to deal more effectively with taxing 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 addicted individual was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these situations can bring about memories that can trigger psychological stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcoholic to engage in excessive drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these situations may not only negate long lasting alcohol recovery for the alcohol dependent individual but they can also lead to relapse and therefore go against one’s alcohol recovery.

The Good News: Quality Help is Readily Available

In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol dependent individual, family members can actually cause unintentional harm by enabling the unsafe drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted person.

The drug abuse research literature demonstrates the fact that most individuals who effectively complete alcohol counseling go through at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get defeated or overwhelmed when a relapse manifests itself.

Fortunately, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up treatment and training have resulted in more productive, enduring alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency therapeutic results, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcoholics attain ongoing alcohol recovery.

Tags: alcohol treatment, alcohol rehab, drinking problems