Alcohol addiction and treatment for alcoholism have begun to be discussed more and more often and with insistence. There is a problem. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction?
This question is asked by more than one family member with a similar problem, most often the wife of an alcoholic, who dreams that one day her husband will stop drinking. How to help an alcoholic stop drinking?
When you want to help a patient with alcoholism, most of the time you are accompanied by a subjective feeling of the problem. You are irritated by alcoholic beverages, which complicate family relationships and contribute to financial difficulties.
A person who is addicted to alcohol may have only a vague impression that the issue is out of control and often does not see the problem in alcohol abuse at all.
He does not understand that he has to do something about alcohol addiction, especially when he is asked to be treated with drugs. The alcoholic sincerely denies that he is.
In the eyes of a drunkard, other people who want to help him exaggerate the situation. They are like enemies, not helpers and allies. What can be done to make help for a domestic drunkard effective?
How to help an alcoholic stop drinking?
Paradoxes of assistance given to a person who drinks.
More than one wife of a man who drinks alcohol wondered what family life would be like if her husband stopped drinking. In a fit of pain and anger, she throws arguments in the style: "If you loved me, you were done with this alcohol a long time ago. "Unfortunately, these kinds of words only lead to a fundamentally different result than expected.
By reinforcing the guilt in the domestic drunkard, the result is that the patient wants to drink. The behavior of alcoholics is not a manifestation of his ill will, it is a consequence of the disease.
Her emotions, her thinking and his will began to be guided by alcohol, from which it is difficult to escape. Alcohol becomes a way to stifle sadness, boredom, shame, stress, routine.
The mechanism of addiction is that ethanol turns off negative emotions, giving in return, at least for a short time, positive ones: joy, relaxation, peace. When he has calmed down, despondency takes over the person again, and later another bottle or beer becomes the "medicine".
A person dependent on alcohol, under the influence of drinks, changes negative emotions into pleasant ones, which leads to a complete lack of desire to change anything in her life. Therefore, the best help for a person who drinks is to confront the alcoholic with reality when he has calmed down.
Let him experience the consequences of his drunkenness, for example, wake up on a park bench with no watch or shoes, pay a fine for drunk driving, and get a reprimand from his boss for not showing up for work after an event with the colleagues.
Any negative experience of alcohol intoxication will be a signal to the drinker that drinking alcohol is not attractive at all and is a serious problem that creates other difficulties: problems in relationships with family or at work.
Unfortunately, many people who want to help a loved one, ponder how to help an alcoholic cope with addiction and make every effort to silence the issue of alcoholism so that the family does not know about the problem.
Instead of calling the problem "alcoholism" and allowing drunks to experience the negative consequences of alcohol abuse, people do something completely different. They defend the domestic drunkard, justify his drinking, hide alcoholic beverages from him, deny having problems with alcohol.
Therefore, the drinking family feels "protected" and can still drink with impunity. Often, people who want to free the alcoholic from their chains unknowingly become helpers in drinking and contribute to the postponement of the decision to stop drinking.
The most common victims of co-addiction are the wives of alcoholics. If the husband is an alcoholic, then he is addicted to a chemical - ethanol, and his wife becomes, strangely, addicted to the alcoholic husband.
She becomes a so-called partner who does not trust anyone in her spouse's world and, desperate, she is constantly worried about finding a new job to pay off her partner's financial obligations. This makes her lie to the children that dad is sick, denies alcoholism, neglects herself and the children, ignores her own needs.
This problem also requires therapy. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction? Until the alcoholic's wife realizes that she is not helping him, protecting him from the negative consequences of alcohol intoxication, until then the husband will drink.
Co-alcoholism is a series of negligent behaviors of a partner of an alcoholic who is trying to adjust to a pathological situation. Unfortunately, this only multiplies the subsequent pathologies and problems.
The family then comes to tinker not with one, but with two addictions: alcoholism and alcoholism. The wife makes every effort in good faith - she hopes this will make it easier for her husband to get out of the addiction. Unfortunately, her efforts have the opposite effect: she unknowingly causes the disease even more.
She pays close attention, cares, promises, lies, protects - nothing. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction? To help an alcoholic stop drinking once and for all, you need to stop pretending, admit you're helpless, and seek professional help.
Helping an alcoholic is a thankless role because the addict will fight fiercely for their drinks. Having decided to help an alcoholic, it is worth remembering that this is a job for many years, and not for one day.
A person who drinks will not change under the influence of an obstacle, even the most violent. Some argue, on the contrary, that it is impossible in itself to help an alcoholic, because you can only harm yourself. Encourage people to seek help from specialized centers such as addiction treatment centers and others.
Tips to help someone with alcohol addiction
How to help so as not to harm and not increase the development of alcoholism?
Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind when deciding to support and treat a person who drinks alcohol:
- Accept that alcoholism is a chronic disease. Don't see it as a shame and a shame for the family or something that needs to be hidden from the whole world.
- An alcoholic is like a bad child who needs to be punished for lack of discipline and disobedience!
- Don't trust the promises of a house drunkard when you realize they can be kept! An alcoholic can declare his desire for "cosmetic changes", for example, guarantee that he will change the type of drinks for weaker ones. Don't expect drastic changes driven by an argument or blackmail.
- Be consistent! If you said you were going to do something, please do it. Don't worry about leaving when you're not ready.
- There is no need for reprimand, don't drag yourself into conflict, don't read sermons, especially when an alcoholic is drunk. He already knows everything you want to inspire him. This behavior only results in further lies and unfounded promises being presented.
- Don't expect an immediate and quick solution to the problem! Alcoholism is a chronic disease, and even long-term abstinence periods do not guarantee that the disease will not return. Make monastery tea every day, effectively remove alcohol and nicotine addiction.
- Do not control how much an alcoholic drinks, do not put away purchased bottles, but also do not allow free access to alcohol - this will push the alcoholic into even more desperate attempts to take alcohol and seek an opportunity to drink.
- Never drink together in the hope that you will take less and drink less. How can you help an alcoholic stop drinking if you are sitting drinking together? There is no way.
- Don't let the drunkard lie, don't believe his he lies and his promises, because by doing this you allow him to hope that he will be able to outwit his loved ones.
- Try to give the alcoholic support and love. I appreciate your attempts to stay sober. Remember that alcoholism is a disease and you shouldn't blame anyone for the disease.
Helping an alcoholic will be more effective if you leave him alone: do not insist on rehabilitation, do not cry, do not cry, do not beg, do not prepare sick days, do not borrow money, do not clean up after his drunken party, that you try to put things in order with a hangover. . .
Let him drink at his own risk. The sooner he reaches the bottom, the more likely he is to want to give up quickly to start improving.