How to Deal With an Alcoholic: Dos, Dont’s, Coping

Watching a friend or family member struggle with a drinking problem can be as heartbreakingly painful as it is frustrating. Your loved one may be disrupting family life by neglecting their responsibilities, getting into financial and legal difficulties, or mistreating or even abusing you and other family members. Sometimes family members and friends of someone with a substance abuse disorder make the mistake of enabling the addict or alcoholic through their own behaviors. In this sense, enabling means that family or friend’s actions allow the addict or alcoholic to continue their self-destructive behavior. This could mean paying their legal fines, bailing them out of jail, or even continuing to forgive them time and time again. In order to stop enabling someone, it may feel like you’re too harsh or mean.

• It’s important to let them know you want to know how you can best support them in seeing their substance abuse and getting help.
• It’s easy to lose sight of yourself and your needs when dealing with an addicted loved one.
• If this happens, a properly organized intervention may be needed.
• The Association for Addiction Professionals represents the professional interests of more than 100,000 addiction-focused health care professionals in the United States, Canada and abroad.

The most common symptoms are tolerance and alcohol dependence. Tolerance means that over time, your loved one will need increasingly larger or more frequent drinks to become intoxicated. Interventions can be highly effective and are sometimes the only way to truly get through to an alcoholic. Ultimately, the goal of an intervention is to get them to realize their denial in alcoholism lifestyle is unmanageable and that their destructive behaviors are affecting everyone involved. Usually, a person with a substance abuse issue is going to be in denial and will meet questions raised to them with avoidance, rationalization, and even anger at times. It’s easy to lose sight of yourself and your needs when dealing with an addicted loved one.

Renewal Center for Ongoing Recovery

A successful intervention must be planned carefully to work as intended. A poorly planned intervention can worsen the situation — your loved one may feel attacked and become isolated or more resistant to treatment. An intervention can motivate someone to seek help for alcohol or drug misuse, compulsive eating, or other addictive behaviors. Often, in trying to “help,” well-meaning loved ones will actually do something that enables someone dependent on alcohol to continue along their destructive paths.

The second stage of denial is easily broken by the transference of dependency from self to the sobriety support fellowship. When a person gets exposure to the 12-Step program for instance, they initially do it with a great deal of reluctance. What they usually find before too long is that something very powerful is happening to them. The persistence of this denial is astonishing in many who continue to attempt abstinence by themselves in spite of repeated failure.

How To Deal With An Alcoholic In Denial

Not everyone needs to hit rock bottom to know it’s time for drug rehab but taking away the resources that make their addiction “easier” can provide the wake-up call they need to make changes. Attending a 12-step program or other support group is one of the most common treatment options for alcohol abuse and addiction. AA meetings and similar groups allow your loved one to spend time with others facing the same problems. As well as reducing their sense of isolation, your loved one can receive advice on staying sober and unburden themselves to others who understand their struggles firsthand. Studies suggest that the social connection provided by these groups can help your loved one build confidence in their own ability to avoid alcohol in social situations and support their sobriety. It’s important to remember that you’re not alone in your struggle.

You may be called judgmental or nosy, or told to mind your own business. Anger and defensiveness suggest that your loved one has some awareness of a problem but is afraid to face https://ecosoberhouse.com/ it. There are several signs of denial to look out for in your loved ones or in yourself. Be aware of the common forms of denial, and consider whether they are familiar to you.

How to Talk to an Alcoholic in Denial

But when it comes to addiction, the person with the problem often struggles to see it and acknowledge it. You may need to join forces with others and take action through a formal intervention. When you see a family member or loved one repeatedly choose alcohol or other drugs above all else, you might begin to lose sight of the person you thought you knew. The problem is that alcoholism—or what doctors today refer to as “alcohol use disorder”—has taken hold. America’s Rehab Campuses offer modern state-of-the-art alcohol treatment facilities with a wide range of inpatient and outpatient programs. The facility uses evidence-based treatments to help people on their journey to recovery.

While it’s important to be open and honest about your concerns, you need to remember that you cannot force someone to stop abusing alcohol. As much as you may want to, and as hard as it is to watch, you cannot make someone stop drinking. Convincing an alcoholic family member to get help isn’t easy.

Overcoming Stage One Denial

Your loved one needs to be reminded that people care for them and want what’s best for them. So, when supporting your loved one, it can be beneficial to lead with love, compassion, and understanding. If they’re not receptive, keep trying — and set boundaries to protect your own well-being. Even if you are aware that your drinking has become a problem, it’s common to worry about what others might think.

• Even when the links between alcohol abuse and specific negative consequences are clear, some people will continue to drink and insist it isn’t a problem.
• Should your addicted loved one agree to treatment, the interventionist can provide recommendations for substance abuse treatment centers.
• A further example is the young executive who drives a BMW, lives in a nice condo and holds a good job with a nationally known electronics firm.
• It’s important to understand that while you may not be able to control your loved one’s alcoholic behavior, you do have a choice in how you think, react and participate.
• This problem has to be corrected in the innermost self before arty long-term sobriety can be obtained.

By a sizable margin, alcohol use disorder is the most common substance problem in the U.S. People affected by this disorder may be addicted to alcohol. They may also have serious issues related to nonaddicted alcohol abuse.