Your husband’s social drinking during football games has gradually led to daily drinking. Lately, he cannot even leave for work until after he has had a drink. You worry that he will lose his job or be caught drinking and driving.
Your wife hides liquor in the cabinet and nips from the bottle throughout the day. You see her glazed eyes at night, and your children know that mommy needs to rest and not be bothered.
Your high school son started drinking at parties when he was 14, and now he comes home all hours of the night, if he comes home at all. You lose sleep worrying about him and mourn the loss of emotional closeness the two of you once shared.
Living With An Alcoholic
These scenarios describe households around the country every day. If you live with an alcoholic, you understand the stress an alcoholic causes to the entire family. Hopeless to change your spouse or child’s behavior, you alternate between anger, sadness, despair, worry, embarrassment and fear. You wait for the call from jail, hospital or morgue. Before alcohol reduces your family to ashes, seek professional help.
Effects on the Family
Alcohol damages the abuser’s body and affects the entire family. In most homes where an alcoholic resides, physical violence, verbal conflict, marital tension, infidelity and even divorce are prevalent. Most families also struggle with codependency. Everyone walks on edge, trying to avoid doing or saying anything that triggers the alcoholic to pick up a drink. You may even feel responsible for your loved one’s choices and try to change yourself to suit him. Children of alcoholics face particular threats. As they see their parent turn to alcohol for stress relief or relaxation, these innocent observers are more likely to become alcoholic adults. They also face increased depression or other psychological challenges.
Treatment Options
When investigating treatment options for the alcoholic in the family, you must understand that you cannot make the addict seek help. Your spouse or child must decide that he does not want to drink anymore. Several treatment options are available that help your alcoholic loved one learn to live without alcohol.
Inpatient treatment provides medically supervised detox after which the patient receives therapy and support. Isolated from their normal lives, they learn to recognize the emotional, social or physical triggers that lead to drinking. In cases, patients receive medications that block the craving for alcohol or produce negative side effects when alcohol is ingested.
Outpatient treatment matches the alcoholic with a professional therapist. As a team, they meet regularly to discover the addict’s emotional and situational triggers that lead him to drink. Alcoholics also attend group sessions and create a healthy social network. Additionally, marriage and family therapy is available to restore wholeness to the entire family.
The only key to maintaining sobriety is to stop drinking and avoid it forever. Addicts rarely achieve sobriety without professional assistance. Your alcoholic loved one can find healing when they enroll in a treatment program that meets their needs and provides them with the tools they need to kick their habit for good. Whether an alcoholic wants to seek help or not, the family benefits from receiving professional counseling. As you learn the science behind the addiction, you also learn how to avoid codependency and handle your loved one’s destructive behavior. Instead of allowing the alcohol to take over, you can discover how to create a physically and emotionally healthy family.
Contact Drugrehab.org Today
Addiction can take hold of your life before you know it. If you or a loved one are trapped in an addiction to drugs or alcohol that you can’t break out of please contact Drugrehab.org today. We are highly trained professionals with the resources to help you no matter the severity of your current condition.
Call us today at the toll free number at the top of the page. If you feel more at ease emailing us, please simply fill out our form in the right column. You can beat this and we can help you.
For More Information Related to “Alcohol Rehab Centers and Treatment Programs For Alcoholism” Be Sure To Check Out These Additional Resources From DrugRehab.org:
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- What Are The Symptoms of Alcohol Poisoning?
- What Does Alcohol Do to Your Liver?
- The Effects of Drugs and Alcohol on the Kidneys
- What is Alcoholic Hepatitis?
