If you or someone you know has asked the question: “How to stop drinking?” it can safely be assumed that the need to stop drinking is a very real one.
Non-alcoholic drinkers that don’t abuse alcohol and have no problems with their drinking don’t find themselves wondering how to stop drinking alcohol.
Let’s burrow a little deeper. For the non-alcoholic, “How to stop drinking” could appear to be an odd question! Surely the answer is simply to not drink? Ironically, it is at this crossroads that the puzzle of the alcoholic starts to become clearer.
One of the diagnostic criteria to be determined an alcoholic is “loss of control” and it’s precisely because the alcoholic cannot simply stop drinking that they have a problem.
It’s paramount to understand that once a person has drunk enough alcohol to become alcoholic one part of the condition is a greatly diminished awareness of the nature and severity of their drinking problem.
Often alcoholics are forced into a treatment centre by their family and it’s interesting to note that this has little to do with whether rehab will work or not! So the key is to get the alcoholic help as soon as possible even if they’re saying things like
“I don’t have a drinking problem.” If you’re concerned about them – contact us to arrange an assessment at a treatment centre near you.
“I don’t want to go to rehab, it’ll just be a waste of time & money.” It’s normal for alcoholics to have little insight into their condition and no motivation to get better. The alcohol treatment centre will have professional addiction counselling staff and other consultants to best ensure that the reality of the alcoholics drinking is brought home to them in a receive-able manner.
An alcoholic is like a gherkin – the gherkin can never return to being a cucumber and alcoholics cannot return to being normal, social drinkers. Once alcoholic the brain has undergone changes and the alcoholic cannot regain the capacity for normal drinking.
To the onlooker, the damages that frequently litter the alcoholic’s landscape are quite clearly as a result on their drinking. While the alcoholic is in denial & delusional about their drinking it’s important that the family become educated around co-dependency and healthy boundaries.
The family plays a critical role in either continuing to enable the problem drinker or learning how to adopt a stance that’s most usefully going to pressure their alcoholic loved one into realising that
A) They have a no-fault illness (no-one is to blame for them becoming alcoholic) and, most importantly
B) It’s their illness and their responsibility to take steps towards recovery from alcoholism.
If you or a loved one have a drinking problem please contact one of our addiction treatment consultants right now – they’re standing by waiting for your call.