Alcohol addiction and the treatment of alcoholism began to be discussed with increasing frequency and persistence. There is a problem. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction?
This question is asked by more than a relative with a similar problem, most of the time the wife of an alcoholic, who dreams that one day her husband will stop drinking. How to help an alcoholic to stop drinking?
When you want to help a patient with alcoholism, you are most often accompanied by a subjective feeling of the problem. Alcoholic beverages irritate him, complicating family relationships and contributing to financial difficulties.
A person who is dependent on alcohol may have only a vague impression that the matter is out of control and often does not see the problem at all in alcohol abuse.
He doesn't understand that he has to do something about alcohol dependence, especially when they ask him to treat him with drugs. The alcoholic sincerely denies that it 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 home drunk help effective?
How to help an alcoholic to stop drinking?
Paradoxes of the assistance provided to a drinker.
More than one wife of an alcoholic man wondered what family life would be like if the husband stopped drinking. In a fit of grief and anger, she throws arguments along the lines: "If you loved me, it was a long time since you finished with this alcohol. "Unfortunately, these types of words only produce a result that is fundamentally different from what is desired.
By reinforcing guilt in the domestic drunk, the result is that the patient wants to drink. The behavior of the alcoholic is not a manifestation of his ill will, it is a consequence of the disease.
His emotions, thoughts and will began to be guided by alcohol, from which it is difficult to escape. Alcohol becomes a way to drown 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 sobriety is restored, dejection takes hold of the person again, and later another bottle or beer becomes the "medicine. "
A person who is dependent on alcohol, under the influence of drinks, exchanges bad emotions for pleasant ones, leading 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 recovered.
That you experience the consequences of your drunkenness, for example, waking up on a park bench without a watch or shoes, paying a fine for drunk driving, and receiving a reprimand from your boss for not showing up for work after an event with colleagues.
Every 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 the family or at work.
Unfortunately, many people who want to help a loved one are racking their brains on how to help an alcoholic cope with addiction and do everything possible to silence the problem of alcoholism so that the family does not find out about the problem.
Instead of calling the problem "alcoholism" and allowing the drunk to experience the negative consequences of alcohol abuse, people do something completely different. They defend the domestic drunkard, justify their alcohol consumption, hide alcoholic beverages from them, deny that they have any problem with alcohol.
Thus, the drinking household feels "protected" and can still drink with impunity. Often times, people who want to free the alcoholic from the shackles unknowingly become drinking helpers and help postpone 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 her wife, oddly enough, becomes dependent on her alcoholic husband.
She becomes a so-called partner who trusts no one in her spouse's world and, in desperation, is constantly worried about finding a new job to pay for the partner's financial obligations. This makes her lie to the children that the father is ill, denies alcoholism, neglects both her and the children, ignores her own needs.
This problem also requires some therapy. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction? Until the alcoholic's wife understands that she is not helping him, protecting him from the negative consequences of alcoholic intoxication, until then, the husband will drink.
Co-alcoholism is a series of careless behaviors of the partner of an alcoholic who tries to adapt to a pathological situation. Unfortunately, this only multiplies subsequent pathologies and problems.
Then the family begins to play with not one, but two addictions: alcoholism and co-alcoholism. The wife does everything possible in good faith: she hopes that in this way it will make it easier for the husband to get out of the addiction. Unfortunately, her efforts have the opposite effect: unknowingly, she further causes the disease.
She pays a lot of attention, worries, makes promises, lies, protects, nothing. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction? To help an alcoholic stop drinking once and for all, she must stop pretending, admit that there is nothing he can do, and seek professional help.
Helping an alcoholic is an ungrateful role because the alcohol addict will fight fiercely for her 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 yourself to help an alcoholic, because you can only harm yourself. Encourage people to seek help from specialized centers, such as addiction therapy centers and others.
Tips to help someone with an alcohol addiction
How to help not to harm and not to increase the development of alcoholism?
Here are some tips and tricks to consider when deciding to support and heal a person who drinks:
- Accept that alcoholism is a chronic disease. Don't see it as an embarrassment and an embarrassment to the family or something that should be hidden in front of everyone.
- An alcoholic is like a naughty child who needs to be punished for lack of discipline and disobedience!
- Don't take a home drunk's promises with faith when you realize they can be kept! An alcoholic may declare his desire for "cosmetic changes", for example, he guarantees that he will change the type of drinks to softer ones. Don't expect drastic changes driven by a fight or blackmail.
- Be consistent! If you said you would do something, please do it. Don't worry about leaving when you're not ready.
- There is no need for reproaches, do not get into conflict, do not read sermons, especially when an alcoholic is intoxicated. He already knows everything you want to inspire him. This behavior only leads to more lies and unfounded promises.
- Don't expect an immediate and quick solution to the problem! Alcoholism is a chronic disease, and even long periods of abstinence do not guarantee that the disease will not return. Brew monastery tea every day, effectively remove addiction to alcohol and nicotine.
- Do not check how much an alcoholic drinks, do not keep purchased bottles, but also do not allow open access to alcohol; this will only push the alcoholic into even more desperate attempts to obtain alcohol and seek an opportunity to drink.
- Never drink together in the hope that you will get less and drink less. How can you help an alcoholic stop drinking if you are sitting and drinking together? No way.
- Do not let the drunkard lie, do not believe his lies and promises, because in this way you allow him to have the hope of being able to outwit his loved ones.
- Try to be supportive and loving to the alcoholic. Appreciate your attempts to stay sober. Remember that alcoholism is a disease and you do not need to scold anyone for the disease.
Helping an alcoholic will be more effective if you leave him alone: do not insist on rehab, do not yell, do not cry, do not beg, do not prepare sick days, do not borrow money, do not clean up after your drunk. parties, try to put things in order with a hangover. . .
Let him drink at his own risk. The sooner you get to the bottom, the more likely you want to quickly ditch it to start improving.