Treatment of alcohol addiction and alcoholism is beginning to be discussed more frequently and continuously. there is a question. How to help alcoholics cope with addiction?
The question was asked by more than one family member with a similar problem, usually the wife of an alcoholic who dreams of one day her husband will stop drinking. How to help alcoholics quit drinking?
When you want to help an alcoholic, you are often accompanied by subjective feelings about the problem. You are annoyed by alcoholic beverages, which can complicate family relationships and lead to financial hardship.
An alcohol-dependent person may have only a vague impression that things are out of control and often see no problem with alcoholism at all.
He didn't understand what he had to do about alcohol dependence, especially when asked to take medication. The alcoholic sincerely denied that he was.
In the eyes of an alcoholic, others who want to help him exaggerate the situation. They are like enemies, not helpers and allies. What can be done to make help for home alcoholics effective?
How to help alcoholics quit drinking?
The paradox of helping drinkers.
The wife of more than one alcoholic has wondered what family life would look like if her husband stopped drinking. With grief and indignation, she makes the argument in this style: "If you loved me, you would have finished this wine. " Unfortunately, such remarks only lead to very different outcomes than expected.
It reinforces the domestic alcoholic's sense of guilt, and as a result the patient wants to drink. The behavior of an alcoholic is not a manifestation of his malice, but the result of his disease.
His emotions, thoughts and will began to be guided by alcohol and it was difficult to get rid of it. Alcohol became a way to drown out sadness, boredom, shame, stress and everyday life.
The mechanism of addiction is that ethanol turns off negative emotions, at least for a short period of time giving positive exchanges - happiness, relaxation, peace. When he came to his senses, depression overwhelmed the man again, and another bottle or beer later became "drug".
A person who is dependent on alcohol, under the influence of drinking, turns bad emotions into pleasant ones, which results in a complete lack of desire to change anything in his life. So the best help for an alcoholic is to face reality when the alcoholic is sober.
Let him experience the consequences of being drunk, such as waking up on a park bench without a watch or shoes, paying a DUI fine, and being reprimanded by his boss for not showing up at work after an activity with a co-worker.
Every negative experience with alcoholism sends a signal to the drinker that drinking is not attractive at all and is a serious problem that creates other difficulties — problems with family or work relationships.
Unfortunately, many people who want to help their loved ones rack their brains on how to help alcoholics deal with addiction and go to great lengths to cover up their alcoholism so that their families don't know about it.
Instead of calling the problem "alcoholism" and letting the drunk experience the negative consequences of alcoholism, people take a completely different approach. They defended the house drinker, defended his drinking, withheld alcoholic beverages from him, and denied that they had any problems with alcohol.
As a result, drinking families feel "protected" and can still drink with impunity. Often, those who want to free alcoholics from their shackles can unknowingly become a drinking helper and cause a delay in 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 becomes addicted to one chemical, ethanol, and his wife becomes, oddly, dependent on her alcoholic husband.
She becomes a so-called partner, trusting no one in her spouse's world, and in desperation she is constantly preoccupied with finding a new job to pay off her partner's financial obligations. This led her to lie to her children that Dad was sick, deny alcoholism, neglect herself and her children, and ignore her own needs.
This problem also requires some treatment. How to help alcoholics cope with addiction? Until the alcoholic's wife understands that she is not helping him and protecting him from the negative effects of alcoholism, the husband will not drink until then.
Alcoholism is a series of careless behaviors by an alcoholic's partner trying to adjust to a pathological situation. Unfortunately, this only adds to the morbidity and problems that follow.
Then the family started mending not one, but two addictions - alcoholism and alcoholism. The wife sincerely does everything she can - and she hopes that in this way, she will make it easier for her husband to break free. Unfortunately, her efforts backfired—she unknowingly fueled the disease even more.
Very concerned, concerned, committed, lied, protected - nothing. How to help alcoholics cope with addiction? To help an alcoholic quit drinking once and for all, you need to stop pretending, admit your helplessness, and seek professional help.
Helping alcoholics is a thankless role, as alcoholics fight fiercely for their booze. After deciding to help an alcoholic, it's worth remembering that it's a multi-year job, not a day's job.
A person who drinks does not change under the influence of a barrier, even the most violent one. Conversely, some people believe that helping the alcoholic itself is impossible because you can only hurt yourself. People are encouraged to seek help from specialized centers such as addiction treatment centers.
Tips for Helping Alcoholics
How to help avoid harm and not increase the development of alcoholism?
When deciding to support and heal drinkers, keep these tips and tricks in mind:
- Accepting that alcoholism is a chronic disease. Don't see it as a disgrace and disgrace to the family or something that needs to be hidden from the world.
- An alcoholic is like a naughty child who needs to be punished for lack of discipline and disobedience!
- Don't trust the promise of a drunk family when you realize it's possible to deliver on that promise! For example, an alcoholic can declare his desire for a "cosmetic change", guaranteeing that he will change the drink type to a weaker one. Don't expect a quarrel or extortion to cause drastic changes.
- Consistently! If you say you will do something, please do it. Don't worry about leaving when you're not ready.
- No blame, don't drag yourself into conflict, don't read sermons, especially when alcoholics are drunk. He already knows everything you want to motivate him. Such behavior will only lead to further lies and unfounded promises.
- Don't expect a quick fix right away! Alcoholism is a chronic disease, and even long-term abstinence from alcohol does not guarantee that the disease will not recur. Brew monastic tea daily to effectively remove alcohol and nicotine addiction.
- Don't check the quantity of alcoholic beverages, don't put away purchased bottles, and don't allow open access to alcohol - this will only drive alcoholics even more desperate to try to get alcohol and look for opportunities to drink.
- Don't drink together, I hope he drinks less. How can you help an alcoholic stop drinking if you sit and drink together? no way.
- Don't let the alcoholic lie and don't believe his lies and promises, because then you can make him hope he can conquer the one he loves.
- Try giving alcohol support and love. Thank him for trying to stay awake. Remember, alcoholism is a disease and you don't need to blame anyone for it.
Helping an alcoholic is most effective if you leave him alone - don't insist on rehab, don't yell, don't cry, don't beg, don't take sick leave, don't borrow money, don't clean up the party when drunk, let himTrying to put things in order with a hangover. . .
Let him drink at his own risk. The sooner he hits the bottom, the more likely he will soon want to let it go to start getting better.