Witnessing a person’s sanity and rational approach fading away due to a bottle of liquor is a tragic sight to see. It would be more difficult if the person is your loved one. A person with an alcohol abuse disorder (AUD) is unable to control alcohol consumption owing to their physical and psychological needs. Despite knowing its impacts on their health and social life, they fail to use their higher reasoning skills. Alcoholism not only lures its victims away from stability in life but affects all those associated with them.
Your instincts of love and care would urge you to remedy the situation and pull out your loved one from this vicious trap. But how can you achieve that? Dealing with a person suffering from alcohol use disorder requires proper alcohol detox planning and a clear focus on your goal. Blurry ideas and a confused approach would further cause the threads to tangle up! If you face a similar situation, here are some ways for you to help your loved ones navigate their way through this turmoil.
- Choose the Right Rehabilitation Centre:
To root out the problem of alcohol addiction, you would need some professional help. Even if your loved one has agreed to forgo alcohol consumption, withdrawal symptoms can be cruel and merciless. In extreme cases, they can lead to hallucinations and seizures. You will have to find the best place and treatment program to handle them. To help you make the right decision, you can search for the best addiction treatment provider to guide you through the complexities of treatment programs. The recovery process would require you to be tough, and your emotional attachment might get in the way. The professionals would have no emotional attachment with their patients and would not go soft on them. After making the right choice tailored to the patient, you and your loved one are all set to take your first step towards this life-changing journey.
- Find and Seek Support From a Recovered Alcoholic:
In times of struggle and pain, one requires someone to look up to for strengthening their dwindling motivation. Who could be better than a person who has already crossed the bumpy road to recovery? No one would understand the pain and condition of your loved one better than a recovered alcoholic. Only their mere presence would spark up hope in you and your loved one that all is not lost. So use your contacts, and try to find someone who can guide your family member or friend through their personal experiences and words of wisdom.
- Refrain from Making Financial Help:
While it might go rough on you, do not pay heed to the pleas of financial help from your alcoholic friend or family member. While their need is desperate, it is not for their good. Your financial assistance would deepen the pit of addiction instead of helping them out. While you would want to trust them, remember it’s a pain of withdrawal making them do it. Once they have decided to quit drinking, your financial assistance may waste all efforts and cause them to retrace their steps to being an alcoholic.
- Avoid Situations That May Lead to a Relapse:
Initial months are critical to a recovery process, and the chances of relapse are always there. One of its causes is fear. It is the fear of not being good enough to recover and to live without the intake of alcohol. The addicts would often disqualify the progress made so far and would long to drink again.
Create an environment within your home that would encourage sobriety. Make sure that your home has no alcoholic liquor, even somewhere hidden. Avoid taking your alcoholic friend to a gathering where they serve alcoholic drinks. Seeing others consuming alcohol would intensify the desire in them. Try to maintain healthy practices in your home that encourage a positive approach towards life. Once the desire to be sober again outshines the desire to consume alcohol, you are halfway to success!
- Offer Your Unwavering Support:
It is good to know that someone always has your back, no matter what. In this painful time, offer your firm support to your addicted loved ones. Listen to them openly without any judgments, and make them feel like they can always rely on you. Handle their outbursts wisely and try to maintain a calm demeanor. Be compassionate without being too soft that your addicted loved one could exploit it for their purposes. Try to share your concerns and care for them without letting them feel pressured. Make sure your loved ones are sober when you have a conversation. Otherwise, everything will roll away without any effect.
Conclusion:
While helping someone out of addiction has its challenges, be careful not to take the situation on your nerves. Things can become stressful, and the outcome might not always be positive. You might have to try again and again before you achieve the results. Be prepared, and do not be unnerved when the circumstances do not go in your favour. Your persistence and determination can eventually lead everyone out of the mess. So brace yourself to travel through this dark tunnel, but only to see the light at the end!
