If you’re trying to figure out how to help an alcoholic, you may have a lot of mixed feelings. Helping someone with alcoholism is no easy task, and this makes it extremely difficult if you’re close to the person. When you don’t know the proper way to help someone with alcoholism, you can hurt him or her. The first thing you should come to understand is that someone with alcoholism is dealing with a serious illness.
How to Help an Alcoholic Starts with Education
You should be educated about how addiction works because it can help you understand symptoms. Surprisingly enough, just telling someone to stop drinking rarely does the trick, and it can start a fight. Thus, it’s important to understand that the disease of addiction peculiarly hijacks the brain. Part of the brain, called the prefrontal cortex, is not functioning properly, and some of its responsibilities include:
- Impulse control
- Logical decision making
- Empathy
- Self-awareness
The first step in knowing how to help an alcoholic is understanding how their mind is affected. If you’ve ever been confused about why your loved one doesn’t see the damage he or she is causing, this is why. The lack of self-awareness makes it so someone with alcoholism is unknowingly in denial and protecting their addiction. The brain believes the person needs alcohol to survive, so he or she may become defensive. The next thing to understand is that your loved one needs help from a professional treatment facility.
Love Isn’t Always The Way
A common mistake many loved ones make when dealing with someone with an alcohol addiction is thinking love can fix him or her. Without even realizing it, you may be fueling your loved one’s addiction by not having them get help. It’s common for spouses and especially parents of children to think that their love can save the person. The reality is that often your unconditional love can be enabling the person’s addiction to alcohol.
How to Help an Alcoholic Properly
The best way to help someone with alcoholism is with an informal or formal intervention with the help of a specialist. A specialist in addiction will give you tips on how to best confront the person with alcoholism. Having a specialist help increases the likelihood of success making the intervention less likely to have to be repeated. An informal intervention will bring to the person’s attention that you’re concerned, and he or she should get help. A formal intervention is what’s typically shown on television where you give the person an ultimatum and have a detox or inpatient rehab facility on standby to receive him or her after the intervention.
If your loved one is ready and willing to get help, allow Serenity House Detox & Recovery to assist you. When your loved one arrives, we’ll help by guiding him or her through the detox process. At our state-of-the-art facility, we’ll help decrease your loved one’s detox symptoms and put them on the path to recovery. We work with various insurance companies, too, so detox doesn’t have to be a financial burden. Call today at 866.516.8356.
