How To Help An Alcoholic

If you have ever been in a situation where you have watched a friend, family member, or coworker deal with alcohol use, you understand it can be difficult. You may wonder how to help an alcoholic in your life, or if the person even wants to be helped.

Alcoholism is when a person has a physical and psychological dependence on alcohol. They typically have a problem controlling their drinking habits and continue to drink even when it causes problems. Problems with alcoholism generally affect relationships, their work, and their own health.

How to Help

Approaching someone about their alcoholism can be difficult. Below are some ways to help you approach someone you love with an alcohol use disorder:

1. Learn about alcoholism: before anything else, you need to know if your loved one has an addiction to alcohol. Alcoholism isn’t simply drinking too much occasionally. An alcoholic doesn’t drink in moderation. To learn more about alcoholism, a quick Google search should take you to many resources online.
2. Rehearse what you want to say: it is important for the alcoholic to know you truly care about them. Try to be supportive and positive rather than negative and hurtful. Instead of telling them they are an alcoholic, perhaps you can tell them how concerned you are about the amount they drink and how it can be harmful. Make sure you are prepared for any response. Regardless of their reaction, keep yourself calm and continue showing them respect and support.
3. Choose the best time and place: this is an important conversation, so it is imperative to choose the right time and place. Make sure you have privacy and quiet. Choose a place where there will be no interruptions and neither of you will be preoccupied. Most importantly, they need to be sober.
4. Be honest and compassionate: if the person is an alcoholic, your best bet is to be honest with them about their problem. They may react negatively, so be prepared. Allow them to have time and space to react, and listen to anything they want to say.
5. Be supportive: if your loved one doesn’t want treatment, you can force them. You can simply offer to help. They must make the decision themselves. Try not to be judgmental but, rather, imagine yourself in their shoes. Urge them to try a formal treatment program and work hard towards getting a concrete commitment. If they commit, follow up with them regularly.
6. Intervene: if someone is resistant to getting help, an intervention may be necessary. For this to happen, family members, friends, and coworkers confront the person together to urge them to get treatment. A professional counselor often helps with an intervention.

It can be difficult to watch someone you love deal with alcoholism. Anytime you confront an alcoholic, remember to be calm and supportive. If you need help learning more about alcoholism or with confronting someone in your life, give us a call today at Coastal Behavioral Health. We will be happy to walk you through it.

Tags: Alcohol Addiction, Treatment Centers

Addiction Counselors Are Ready To Help

If you deal with addiction, you may want to consider an addiction counselor to help you learn to live without your chosen drug. Even after you have gone through the detoxification process, you are at high risk for a relapse because of social and psychological factors. Some of these factors include life stresses, environmental cues such as visiting a certain neighborhood, and your social networks. Any of these factors can make your urges to use drugs nearly irresistible. In addiction counselor can come beside you to help you learn to escape those cravings and better cope with your life without drugs.

There are several types of counseling therapies available for addicts. The addiction counselor will help you find the one that works best for you and your situation based on your addiction and your needs. Below are some of the therapies available. These therapies can be done on an individual or group basis and be either an outpatient or a residential treatment. Coastline Behavioral Health offers many options to patients that is tailored to the individual.

CBT

CBT, or cognitive behavioral therapy, will teach you how to recognize your situations, thoughts, and moods that may stimulate your drug cravings. Your addiction counselor can help you learn to avoid the triggers and replace your thought processes with ones that are healthier and more consistent with sobriety. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a powerful way to fight against addiction since the skills you learn in CBT last your lifetime.

Contingency Management Therapy

Positive incentives are used with addicts in the contingency management therapy. In a residential program, this often will be vouchers that can be used for goods and services. This method has been proven to be very effective in studies on drug rehab. It can be a high cost method, though, and once the positive incentives stop, many addicts return to their old ways.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing is a newer counseling method that has begun replacing confrontation. In confrontation, addicts are put into a position where they must accept their problems with their addiction. In motivational interviewing, the addiction counselor’s goal is to better understand the addict’s natural motivation to change. Whatever their motivation is, whether it’s the love of their family or something else, the therapy is focused around the motivation.

Couples and Family Therapy

When it comes to addiction, the entire family is affected. The most successful drug abuse programs occur when there are strong relationships. Many addiction counselors will include family members, or just the spouse, of the addicted person. This often helps the addict to stay motivated in therapy and lessens the rates of relapse. It is also a great way to help the family heal together.

Maintenance

Maintenance therapy is often used for addicts with a strong possibility of relapse. For instance, opioid addicts are often given medications that prevent them from getting a high from the drugs. Many of these drugs will be taken for years to prevent a relapse.

Though many people seem to think an addict can be cured after going through a drug rehab program, evidence continues to show that maintenance therapy is important as a lifelong treatment to help addicts overcome their addictions for life.

Tags: Treatment Centers