It is remarkable to articulate something that family members who have been adversely affected by the alcoholism of another family member apparently do not comprehend. It seems that by shielding the alcoholic with untruths and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in effect created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcoholic to persist and go forward with his or her unsafe, detrimental existence.

Without a doubt, rather than helping the alcohol dependent individual and themselves, these family members have basically become enablers who have unintentionally helped negatively affect the alcohol dependent person’s drinking problems even further.

Relapses Can and Do Happen

Another key alcohol dependency issue involves alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol dependent individual has effectively gone through alcohol dependency therapy and then resorts to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation seems contradictory to rational thinking and appears to be so unrealistic that it forces an individual to speculate why anyone who has lived through the wretchedness of alcohol addiction can return to drinking a short while after successful alcohol treatment and in turn after attaining recovery. There are, to be sure, more than a few feasible reasons for this.

It should be mentioned, nonetheless that alcohol addiction research that has focused on the long standing outcomes of alcoholism has revealed that long after the alcohol dependent person has quit his or her drinking, major changes in the way in which the alcoholic’s brain functions are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol addicted person has to do to involve himself or herself in actions that correspond with the changes that have taken place in the brain is to start drinking again.

A Requirement for A Major Lifestyle Modification

There are additional reasons why quite a lot of recovering alcoholics return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. According to the alcohol addiction research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcohol addicted individual needs new ways of reacting and thinking in order to deal more effectively with demanding alcohol-related situations that will take place.

Circumstances such as returning to the same alcohol addictive environment or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the time when the alcohol dependent person was drinking in a hazardous manner; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can elicit memories that can prompt psychological stress or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcoholic to engage in excessive drinking once again. Unfortunately, all of these circumstances may not only work against long lasting sobriety for the alcohol addicted person but they can also lead to relapse and thus go against one’s sobriety.

Summary

In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted person, family members can in point of fact cause unplanned harm by enabling the negative drinking behavior of the alcoholic.

The substance abuse research literature highlights the fact that most people who successfully complete alcohol treatment go through at least one relapse. Alcohol dependent persons and their family members need to know this so that they do not get depressed or stressed out when a relapse manifests itself.

Happily, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up rehab and training have resulted in more productive, long standing alcohol abuse and alcoholism treatment outcomes, have helped decrease alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol dependent persons achieve long standing sobriety.