If you or someone you know needs help with alcoholism then you might want to consider taking action. So what is the best route to go? In my opinion the ideal siutation is for the struggling alcoholic to find a rehab center that has a professional detox area and get checked in. This is the best course of action for a number of reasons:
1) Safety – it is actually very dangerous to stop drinking alcohol and in fact the withdrawal from alcohol can kill a person. This might sound counter-intuitive but it is actually safer to continue drinking alcohol than it is to go through detox unsupervised. So the best course of action is to find a full medical detox in a treatment center where they can safely bring you down off the alcohol and prevent any seizures.
2) Support – there is a ton of support to be had in a residential treatment center and this will come from the other people who are there trying to accomplish the same feat as you are. Having peer support in recovery is huge because we help each other to stay sober through sharing our experience and strength with each other.
3) Aftercare – most drug rehab centers don’t just let you go without some sort of follow up plan in place. This plan might include long term treatment, counseling, or meeting attendance. Either way you’re bound to receive some extra help and knowledge about how to overcome alcoholism when you check out of treatment.
What if someone is not willing to go to treatment? If this is true then there’s not much to be done about it. In some states there is the option to commit someone to treatment but this is usually a mistake because there will be a huge resentment created which typically acts as fuel for more drinking. What works better in this situation is to simply to let someone know that rehab is available to them if and when they decide to quit drinking.
Getting drug addiction help will involve contacting either professional services of some sort or a 12 step treatment program. This is the program that is most popular and therefore easily located when it comes to beating an addiction. These services might include things such as in-patient treatment centers, detox wards, or even therapy or counseling. In addition to rehab, an addict could also seek help from meetings, therapy groups, or from professional counseling.
Many people might use these types of services after they leave treatment as a form of aftercare.
It can be quite a struggle to get someone else to take action and do something about their problem and ultimately you will find that we cannot really change anyone, only ourselves. But we can influence their behavior and their decisions over the long run by becoming more conscious of how we interact with them.
In particular, we need to stop enabling people if we play some role in their drug or alcohol use. This includes helping them out when they get into trouble or calling in sick for them if they miss work due to their drug use. We can make a big difference in the addict’s life by choosing not to enable their drinking or using.
Unfortunately this is what some addicts need in order to start considering the possibility of change. If a drug addict doesn’t endure heavy consequences then they probably won’t be motivated to make a change. So we eventually realize in dealing with an addict that it is best not to deny them of their pain. This does not mean that we need to go out of our way to trip them up or be mean to them – instead we just have to get out of their way and let them endure the natural consequences of their actions.
Giving genuine help to an addict is sometimes difficult because many times when we think we are helping them we are actually enabling them. The bottom line is that you should never help an addict who is trying to set their own terms – when they are ready for real change they will be willing to accept the help on your terms instead. We can still make a difference in the life of an addict but usually it is not a direct difference. Instead we must change our own behavior so as not to deny them of their pain or consequences in their life.
In what way can we reach out to the alcoholic and help them? Traditional recovery programs have tried to answer this question for decades now, and typically without much success. You may have pushed someone in your life towards recovery without much success. If you are at this point then you are probably want to know how best to help an alcoholic.
Part of the issue here is that most treatment paths do not really tailor to the individual – they are set up to treat anyone and everyone. They are generic programs that are intended to help everyone but turn out to not really benefit anyone because they are not customized at all. For example, 12 step programs, which typically dominate the recovery scene, have remained unchanged for decades.
When someone needs help with addiction or alcoholism, we typically send them to a traditional recovery program such as AA or NA. When that fails to produce decent results, instead of blaming the program we always blame the individual, saying that “they just didn’t want it enough,” or that “they just did not get into the spiritual side of the program.” These types of excuses point to a failing in our quest for better recovery and we can do better then just blaming the failed alcoholic. I would suggest:
1) Push alcoholics to use treatment for early recovery. This is crucial because early in an alcoholic’s recovery is an especially vulnerable time when it can be hard just to get a few days clean.” In a controlled environment it is much safer and easier to get started on sobriety.
2) Push alcoholics to create a new life for themselves. This is crucial because simply drying out from alcohol is not the answer. When a true alcoholic consumes booze they do it with enthusiasm and so it turns into a driving force in their life. In their recovery journey, an alcoholic must find new meaning and depth in their life or they risk sliding back into a relapse of destruction and despair.
3) Push alcoholics to grow holistically. If you can get someone to grow in one area of their life, that is good. But if you can encourage an alcoholic to make progress in multiple areas of their life, then this is really good. Holistic growth is indicating that the person is treating their disease as a whole, not simply as a spiritual problem (as some treatments deal with it).
