It is fascinating to bring up something that family members who have been negatively affected by the alcoholism of another family member plainly do not grasp. It appears that by protecting the alcohol addicted person with lies and dishonesty to those outside the family, these well-intentioned family members have in actual fact created a circumstance that makes it easier for the alcoholic to continue and advance with his or her damaging, detrimental existence.

Indeed, instead of helping the alcoholic and themselves, these family members have in truty become enablers who have mistakenly helped negatively affect the alcohol dependent person’s problem drinking condition even more.

The Likelihood of a Relapse is Real

Another key alcohol dependency issue has to do with alcohol relapses. Relapses take place when an alcohol addicted person has successfully undergone alcoholism rehabilitation and then returns to drinking a number of weeks or months later. At first thought, this situation flies in the face of logical thinking and seems so unrealistic that it forces a person to question why anyone who has lived through the awfulness of alcoholism can return to drinking a short while after effective alcohol treatment and in turn after achieving sobriety. There are, to be sure, many feasible reasons for this.

It should be pointed out, nevertheless that alcohol dependency research that has focused on the long-term consequences of alcoholism has revealed that long after the alcoholic has halted his or her drinking, significant alterations in the way in which the alcohol dependent person’s brain operates are still present. As a consequence, all a recovering alcohol dependent person has to do to involve himself or herself in behaviors that correspond with the changes that have taken place in the brain is to start drinking once again.

The Need for a Major Lifestyle Change

There are additional reasons why several recovering alcohol addicted individuals return to drinking a few weeks or a few months after attaining sobriety. In accordance to the alcohol dependency research literature, to make an effective recovery, the alcoholic needs new ways of responding and thinking in order to deal more successfully with tough alcohol-related circumstances that will take place.

Issues such as returning to the same alcohol addictive atmosphere or to the same geographic location; interacting once again with friends from the days when the alcohol dependent person was drinking excessively; or familiar songs, smells, or activities—all of these conditions can bring forth memories that can prompt psychological anxiety or push hot buttons that influence the recovering alcohol addicted person to engage in abusive drinking once again. Regrettably, all of these situations may not only get in the way of long standing alcohol recovery for the alcoholic but they can also lead to relapse and as a result go against one’s sobriety.

Conclusion

In an attempt to “protect” the family alcohol addicted individual, family members can essentially cause unintentional destruction by enabling the harmful drinking behavior of the alcohol addicted person.

The alcoholism research literature validates the fact that most individuals who successfully complete alcohol treatment experience at least one relapse. Alcohol addicted individuals and their family members need to know this so that they do not get down in the dumps or beleaguered when a relapse occurs.

Fortunately, involvement in support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and follow-up rehab and training have resulted in more successful, long lasting alcohol abuse and alcoholism rehab results, have helped diminish alcohol relapses, and have helped recovering alcohol addicted individuals achieve lasting alcohol recovery.