Alcohol dependence and the treatment of alcoholism began to be discussed more and more frequently. There is a problem. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction?
This question is asked by several family members with a similar problem, most often the wife of an alcoholic, who dreams that her husband will one day stop drinking. How to help an alcoholic to stop drinking?
When you want to help a patient with alcoholism, you are usually accompanied by a subjective feeling of the problem. You are annoyed by alcoholic beverages that complicate family relationships and contribute to financial difficulties.
A person who is addicted to alcohol can only have a vague impression that the thing is out of control, and often does not see a problem in alcohol abuse at all.
He does not understand that he has to do something about alcohol dependence, especially when he is asked to be treated with medication. The alcoholic honestly denies that he is.
In the eyes of a drunk, other people who want to help him exaggerate the situation. They are like enemies, not helpers and allies. What can be done to help a home drunkard effectively?
How to help an alcoholic to stop drinking?
The paradoxes of the help given to the person who drinks.
More than one drunkard's wife wondered what family life would look like if her husband stopped drinking. In a fit of sadness and anger, she makes arguments in the style of, "If you loved me, you ended up with this alcohol a long time ago. " Unfortunately, words like this only yield a result that is fundamentally different from what is intended.
The strengthening of the feeling of guilt in a domestic drunkard is the result that the patient wants to drink. The behavior of an alcoholic is not a manifestation of his evil will, it is a consequence of an illness.
His emotions, thinking and will began to be driven by alcohol, which is difficult to escape. Alcohol becomes a way to stifle sadness, boredom, shame, stress, routine.
The mechanism of addiction is that ethanol excludes negative emotions, giving in return, at least for a short time, positive - joy, relaxation, peace. When he sobers up, the person becomes discouraged again, and later another bottle or beer becomes a "cure".
A person who is addicted to alcohol, under the influence of drinks, changes 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 drunkard is to confront the alcoholic with reality when he sobers up.
Let him experience the consequences of his drunkenness, for example, wake up on a park bench without a watch and shoes, pay a fine for drunk driving and collect a reprimand from his boss for not showing up for work after an event with colleagues.
Any negative experience of alcohol intoxication will be a signal to the intoxicant that drinking alcohol is not at all attractive and that it 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, think about how to help an alcoholic to cope with addiction and make every effort to cover up the problem of alcoholism, so that the family would not find out about the problem.
Instead of calling the problem "alcoholism" and allowing a drunk to experience the negative consequences of alcohol abuse, people are doing something completely different. They defend the domestic drunkard, justify his drunkenness, hide alcoholic beverages from him, deny that they have any problems with alcohol.
Therefore, the drinking household feels "protected" and can still drink with impunity. Often people who want to free an alcoholic from the shackles unknowingly become helpers in drinking and contribute to delaying 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 substance - ethanol, and his wife becomes, surprisingly, addicted to an alcoholic husband.
She becomes a so-called partner who doesn't trust anyone 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. That is why he lies to his children that his father is ill, denies alcoholism, neglects himself and his children, neglects his own needs.
This problem also requires some therapy. How to help an alcoholic cope with addiction? Until the alcoholic's wife realizes that she is not helping him, protects him from the negative consequences of alcohol poisoning, until then the husband will drink.
Coalcoholism is a series of negligent behaviors of an alcohol addict’s partner trying to adjust to a pathological situation. Unfortunately, this only multiplies subsequent pathologies and problems.
The family then comes to deal with not one, but two addictions - alcoholism and co-alcoholism. The wife is doing her best - she hopes that this will make it easier for her husband to get out of the addiction. Unfortunately, her efforts have the opposite effect - she unknowingly provokes the disease even more.
He pays a lot of attention, worries, 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 that you are helpless, and seek professional help.
Helping an alcoholic is an ungrateful role because an alcohol addict will fight hard to drink. Deciding to help an alcoholic, it is worth remembering that this is a job for many years, not one day.
A person who drinks will not change under the influence of one, even the most violent, obstacle. Some argue, on the contrary, that it is impossible to help an alcoholic by itself, because you can only harm yourself. Encourage people to seek help in specialized centers such as addiction therapy centers and others.
Tips for helping someone who is addicted to alcohol
How to help not to harm and increase the development of alcoholism?
Here are some tips and tricks to keep in mind when you decide to support and heal a person who drinks:
- Accept that alcoholism is a chronic disease. Don’t perceive it as a disgrace and a disgrace to the family or something to hide from the whole world.
- An alcoholic is like a naughty child who needs to be punished for indiscipline and disobedience!
- Don't take on the promises of a home drunkard when you realize that they can be fulfilled! An alcoholic can express a desire for "cosmetic changes", for example, he guarantees that he will change the type of drink to a weaker one. Don’t expect drastic changes caused by a single quarrel or blackmail.
- Be consistent! If you said you were going to do something, do it. Don’t worry about leaving when you’re not ready.
- No need to complain, don’t get involved in conflicts, don’t read sermons, especially when the alcoholic is intoxicated. He already knows everything you want to inspire him. This behavior only provokes further lies and making unfounded promises.
- Don't expect an urgent and quick way out of the problem! Alcoholism is a chronic disease, and even long periods of abstinence do not guarantee that the disease will not return. Make monastery tea every day, it effectively eliminates alcohol and nicotine addiction.
- Don't check how much the alcoholic drinks, don't put away the bought bottles, but also don't allow open access to alcohol - that will only push the alcoholic into even more desperate attempts to get alcohol and look for an opportunity to drink.
- Never drink together in hopes of getting less and drinking less. How can you help an alcoholic to stop drinking if you sit and drink together? No chance.
- Do not let the drunkard lie, do not believe his lies and promises, because in that way you allow him to hope that he is able to outwit his loved ones.
- Try to support and love the alcoholic. Appreciate his attempts to stay sober. Remember that alcoholism is a disease and you don't have to scold anyone for it.
Helping an alcoholic will be most effective if you just leave him alone - do not insist on rehabilitation, do not shout, do not cry, do not pray, do not save, do not borrow money, do not borrow money, do not clean up after his drunkenness. parties, let's try to put the hangover in order. . .
Let him drink at his own risk. The sooner he gets to the bottom, the more likely he is to quickly want to give up on getting better.