There are a number of common sayings in the alcohol detox and treatment industry that can keep people in active alcoholism for sometime:
• You can’t make someone give up drinking; they have to want to give up.
• Someone must loose everything and fully hit rock bottom before they can find help.
In our experience, both of these statements are untrue. In fact if you wait for an alcoholic to be want to give up drinking you could be waiting for a very long time! It’s likely that they will eventually reach a point where they know that they have to give up drinking, and that they have created so many negative consequences that they want the negative consequences to stop. But whilst in active alcoholism it is very unlikely that they will want to stop drinking for good. There will no doubt be times when they can stay sober for a few weeks or months but any attempt at long term sobriety without psychological support will often fail.
The times when they don’t try to stop, you will probably find that they negotiate with themselves and a loved one to moderate their drinking rather than to stop.
They may promise to:
• Only drink on a weekend
• Always have a meal before drinking
• Switch from wine to beer, or spirits to wine
• Only drink after 5pm
• Drink less
• Drink water in between alcoholic drinks
You may find these and more to Ad infinitum and can continue in a cycle for many years. What all of these examples have in common is that they are tricks that alcoholism can play on the alcoholic and their families. Sometimes the alcoholic will be convincing, to the point that they and their families believe unequivocally and will bet their own life on the fact that this time it will work. This is commonly known as alcoholic insanity.
There are occasions when the family aren’t convinced, but the alcoholic is. Not wanting to see their loved ones suffer they will agree to these new terms to reduce or stop their drinking. It is a common issue for friends and family of an alcoholic, to want to love them better. If love were a successful antidote for alcoholism there would be no alcohol detox clinics / alcohol treatment centres. The lone alcoholic that sits on a park bench drinking spirits from a bottle concealed by a brown paper bag is a minor percentage of the alcoholic population of the UK, probably less than 1%. Alcoholics tend to come from very supportive, loving caring families.
Ok all this sounds familiar but what can we do?
An interventionist is a specialist alcohol counsellor that helps alcoholics and their families to find a way into an alcohol detox clinic or treatment centre. The general essence of an intervention is to let the alcoholic know that they are loved, and you cannot stand by and watch the illness of alcoholism destroy them because you love them to such to do that. It is imperative that they don’t feel that you think that they are bad or wrong in any way. Let them know that you understand that they have the illness of alcoholism and you want to help them find treatment, as you would with any sick friend with a terminal illness. If you would like to know more about an alcohol intervention or you would like to organise someone to help please call us on 0845 686 2323.
