How to Help an Alcoholic...
How to help an alcoholic...
An alcoholic can be helped to find freedom from alcohol. And,
anyone can help who has some counseling or interviewing ability.
There are Two Main Signs of Alcoholism Alcoholics suffer from an
illness that stops them seeing their real condition (denial) and
a tolerance to alcohol that keeps them drinking beyond safe
levels (loss of control).
Denial of the Effect of Alcohol Everyone uses denial. It is a
normal subconscious way to carry out day to day activities
without annoying interference. To illustrate; Stop for a minute
and listen to the sounds around you. More than likely you will
hear sounds that you were not aware of previously. If you
listened to these sounds constantly you would probably get an
overload of noise and may not be able to carry out your normal
duties.
But denial does not just occur and may be so deeply ingrained in
the subconscious that it is no longer a decision to deny
anything.
In the noise example from above; denial begins as simple
avoidance and minimizing of noises around you. You build up a
resistance, a second nature of denial of interfering noises by
blocking out more and more. After awhile you are not aware that
you are blocking out anything.
Alcoholics are no different. They just block out another form of
annoyance, the amount they drink and the effect of their
drinking. And, again it starts out in small ways and builds over
time.
Unfortunately for alcoholics their denial is contributing to the
damage done by alcohol.
Loss of Control of Alcohol Recent research suggests that
alcoholics are born with a genetic variation that encourages
them to drink. Males with alcoholic fathers need more alcohol to
satisfy them than their non-afflicted peers. They need to drink
more to get the same affect as males without an alcoholic
father.
Additionally, alcoholics develop changes at the cellular level
in the brain. These changes actually demand more alcohol be
consumed and fed through these altered cells. In a similar way
that we all experience hunger for food and out bodies demand
more food. Alcoholics have an extra demand for alcohol.
So we have two aspects making an alcoholic drink more alcohol.
There is the genetic demand for more and a change in the brain
cells demanding more.
Loss of Control plus Denial of Effects An alcoholic has slowly
built up a subconscious defense about how much is drunk and the
effect it is having. And, the alcoholic body demands more in the
two ways discussed above.
One would imagine that in these circumstances an alcoholic is
doomed to oblivion. Many do continue to the ultimate oblivion.
But, alcoholics can be helped - in the right circumstances. And
they can be helped early in the progression of the disease to
avoid the ultimate oblivion.
A Window of Opportunity Problem drinkers and alcoholics will
eventually create a problem for themselves, or with other
people, or a legal problem, or problems at work - sometimes
affecting all these areas at the same time.
When this happens the drinker is in a 'window of opportunity'
for listening to someone who cares, who really wants to help,
who can help.
Anyone Can Help If you care and can see the suffering of the
drinker you have what it takes to help a problem drinker. You
may be a loved one, a family member, a friend, a work mate or a
healthcare professional.
With a little training you will learn the particular action
needed to enable anyone to see the reality of their problem and
help them take action to solve the problem.
Best Practice Helping Plan Over the past 65 years healthcare
workers have been trying out many types of counseling and
helping plans for alcohol abuse. One action program has stood
out as being consistently successful in getting alcoholics into
recovery.
This program has now been refined so that anyone can help. This
plan, called BriefTSF, can be learnt and optimized by anyone in
a few hours. You quickly become a sophisticated helper.
Disturb Denial The training leads you through the processes of
helping the alcoholic identify alcohol related problems for
themselves. This process disturbs alcoholic denial and motivates
the person to want to take action.
Motivation and Action Plan But, more than motivation is needed.
The alcoholic needs to know what to do and also support to carry
out an action plan. BriefTSF includes sections on all of these.
The action plan includes putting the alcoholic in touch with
other recovering people immediately they make a decision that
they have a real problem.
Family and Friends of Alcoholics The BriefTSF interview may also
be applied to family and friends who may be suffering from the
effects of a loved ones drinking. They too need a workable
action plan. The BriefTSF interview training includes section
about loved ones, children and friends of alcoholics.
Compassion and Empathy You can help when the alcoholic is
hurting! You already suspect the person has a drinking problem.
BriefTSF will help you decide. Training before the next window
of opportunity occurs is essential.
Robin Foote, BA, NCAC, TSF. www.BriefTSF.com
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