Life Articles

It is interesting to mention something that family members who have been harmed by the signs of alcoholism of another family member evidently do not grasp. It seems that by protecting the alcohol dependent person with falsehoods and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have actually created a condition that makes it easier for the alcoholic to persist and press forward with his or her injurious, destructive lifestyle.

To be sure, rather than helping the alcohol addicted individual and themselves, these family members have essentially become enablers who have unintentionally helped worsen the alcohol addicted individual's drinking problems and increase his or her negative "alcohol signs."

Another one of the key alcohol abuse signs or alcoholism signs involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcoholic or chronic alcohol abuser has effectively gone through alcoholism therapy and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this predicament seems contradictory to commonsensical thinking and looks so unbelievable that it forces one to wonder why anyone who has experienced the horrors of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after effective and successful alcohol treatment and in turn after attaining recovery. There are, to be sure, many reasonable reasons for this.

It should be pointed out, nevertheless that alcohol dependency research that has centered on the lasting outcomes of alcohol dependency has shown that long after the alcohol dependent person has stopped her or his drinking, fundamental alterations in the way in which the alcohol dependent individual's brain works are still present. As a result, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the alterations that have occurred in the brain is to engage in drinking again.

There are other reasons why more than a few recovering alcohol dependent persons return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after reaching sobriety. In accordance to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol dependent person needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more competently with tough alcohol-related circumstances that will occur.

Circumstances such as returning to the same alcohol addictive atmosphere or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the time when the alcohol dependent individual was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities-all of these circumstances can bring about memories that can trigger emotional stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol dependent person to engage in excessive drinking once again.

Sadly, all of these circumstances may not only negate long lasting alcohol recovery for the alcohol addicted person but they can also result in relapse and consequently short-circuit one's alcohol recovery. In an attempt to "protect" the family, alcohol dependent family members can essentially cause unintentional destruction by enabling the harmful drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted individual.

The alcohol abuse research literature validates the fact that most individuals who successfully complete alcohol treatment go through at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get dejected or stressed out when a relapse happens.

Fortunately, participation in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up therapy and education have resulted in more productive, long-term alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction therapeutic outcomes, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent persons reach lasting alcohol recovery.