Alcohol dependence and treatment for alcoholism began to be discussed more and more often and persistently. There is a problem. How can you help an alcoholic overcome his 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 can you help an alcoholic to stop drinking?
When you want to help an alcoholic patient, you are most often accompanied by a subjective feeling of the problem. You are irritated by alcoholic beverages, which complicate family relationships and contribute to financial hardship.
A person addicted to alcohol may have a vague feeling that the problem is out of control and often does not see the problem of alcohol abuse at all.
He doesn't understand that he needs to do something about alcohol addiction, especially when 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 the drunkard at home effective?
How can you help an alcoholic to stop drinking?
Paradoxes of the assistance given to a drinker.
More than one wife of a drinking man wondered what family life would be like if the husband stopped drinking. In a fit of grief and anger, she throws arguments like: "If you loved me, you were done with this alcohol a long time ago. " Unfortunately, this kind of talk only brings one result. fundamentally different from the intended one.
Reinforcing the feeling of guilt in the domestic drunkard, the result is that the patient feels like drinking. The behavior of alcoholics is not a manifestation of unwillingness, it is a consequence of illness.
His emotions, his thinking and his will began to be guided by alcohol, from which it is difficult to escape. Alcohol becomes a way to drown out sadness, boredom, shame, stress, routine.
The mechanism of addiction is that ethanol deactivates negative emotions, giving in return, at least for a short time, positive emotions - joy, relaxation, peace. When he has sobered up, discouragement catches up with the person again, and later another bottle or beer becomes the "medicine".
A person addicted to alcohol, under the influence of drinks, turns bad emotions into pleasant ones, which leads to a complete lack of desire to change anything in his life. Therefore, the best help for a drinker is to confront the alcoholic with reality when he has sobered up.
Let him suffer the consequences of his intoxication, for example, waking up on a park bench without a watch or shoes, paying a fine for drunk driving and receiving a reprimand from his boss for not showing up to the office. work after an event with colleagues.
Every negative experience of alcohol poisoning will be a signal to the drinker that drinking alcohol is not at all attractive and is a serious problem that creates further difficulties - problems in relationships with family or at work.
Sadly, many people who want to help a loved one, rack their brains over how to help an alcoholic cope with the addiction, and go out of their way to quell the alcoholism problem, so that the family is not. not aware of the problem.
Instead of calling the problem "alcoholism" and letting the drunkard suffer the negative consequences of alcohol abuse, people are doing something completely different. They defend the domestic drunkard, justify his alcohol consumption, hide alcoholic drinks from him, deny having any problem with alcohol.
Thus, the drinking household feels "protected" and can still drink with impunity. Often, people who want to free the alcoholic from chains unwittingly become drinking aides and contribute to delaying the decision to quit drinking.
Women of alcoholics are the most common victims of co-addiction. If the husband is an alcoholic, then he is addicted to a chemical substance - ethanol, and his wife becomes, oddly enough, dependent on her alcoholic husband.
She becomes a so-called partner who does not trust anyone in her spouse's world, and in despair, she is constantly worried about finding a new job in order to pay the partner's financial obligations. It makes her lie to the children that dad is sick, denies alcoholism, neglects both herself and the children, ignores her own needs.
This problem also requires some therapy. How can you help an alcoholic overcome his addiction? Until the alcoholic's wife understands 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 reckless behaviors by a partner of an alcoholic who tries to adjust to a pathological situation. Unfortunately, this only multiplies subsequent pathologies and problems.
The family then comes to tinker with not one, but two addictions: alcoholism and co-alcoholism. The wife makes every effort in good faith - in this way she hopes to make it easier for the husband to come out of the addiction. Unfortunately, her efforts have the opposite effect - she unintentionally causes even more illness.
Pay a lot of attention, care, make promises, lie, protect - nothing. How can you help an alcoholic overcome his addiction? To help an alcoholic quit drinking for good, you need to stop pretending, admit that you are helpless, and seek professional help.
Helping an alcoholic is a thankless role because the alcoholic will fight fiercely for his drinks. Having decided to help an alcoholic, it should be remembered that this is a work of several years, not a day.
A person who drinks will not change under the influence of even the most violent obstacle. On the contrary, some argue that it is in itself impossible to help an alcoholic, because one can only harm oneself. Encourage people to seek help from specialist centers such as addiction therapy centers and the like.
Tips for helping someone addicted to alcohol
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 heal someone who drinks:
- Accept that alcoholism is a chronic disease. Don't see it as a shame and a shame on the family or something that needs to be hidden from the whole world.
- An alcoholic is like a naughty child who must be punished for lack of discipline and disobedience!
- Don't believe the promises of a drunken household when you realize you can keep them! An alcoholic may state his desire for "cosmetic changes", for example, guarantees that he will change the type of drink to weaker drinks. Don't expect drastic changes motivated by a quarrel or blackmail.
- To be coherent! If you said you would do something, please do it. Don't worry about leaving when you're not ready.
- No need to reproach, do not get into conflicts, do not read sermons, especially when an alcoholic is intoxicated. He already knows everything you want to inspire him. This behavior only provokes new lies and the presentation of unfounded promises.
- Don't expect an immediate and quick solution to the problem! Alcoholism is a chronic disease, and even periods of long-term abstinence are no guarantee that the disease will not return. Brew monastery tea daily, it effectively eliminates alcohol and nicotine addiction.
- Do not check the amount of alcohol drunk, do not put away purchased bottles, but also do not allow free access to alcohol - this will only push the alcoholic to even more desperate attempts to obtainalcohol and look for an opportunity to drink.
- Never drink together in the hope that he will drink less and drink less. How can you help an alcoholic to stop drinking if you sit and drink together? Certainly not.
- Do not let the drunkard lie, do not believe his lies and his promises, because in this way you allow him to hope that he will be able to outsmart his relatives.
- Try to give the alcoholic support and love. Appreciate his attempts to stay sober. Remember that alcoholism is a disease and you don't need to scold anyone for it.
Helping an alcoholic will be more effective if you leave him alone - don't insist on rehab, don't yell, cry, beg, schedule sick days, borrow money, clean upnot after his party drunkenness, that he tries to put things in order with a hangover. . .
Let him drink at his own risk. The sooner he hits bottom, the more likely he is to quickly want to give it up in order to start getting better.