If your loved one is going in for treatment it is important that you try and stay close to give him/her the necessary encouragement. It may not be easy. Because the treatment may prove to be strenuous mentally and physically.
One study reported that the main reasons alcoholics do not seek treatment are lack of confidence in successful therapies, denial of their own alcoholism and the social stigma attached to the condition and its treatment.
The best approaches for motivating a patient to seek treatment are group meetings between people with alcoholism and their friends and family members who have been affected by the alcoholic behaviour. Using this interventional approach, each person affected offers a compassionate but direct and honest report describing specifically how he or she has been specifically hurt by their loved one's or friend's alcoholism. Children may even be involved in this process, depending on their level of maturity and ability to handle the situation.
Employers can also be effective. Their approach should also be compassionate but strong. For instance, employers can threaten the employee with loss of employment, if he or she does not seek help. Some large companies provide access to inexpensive or free treatment programmes for their workers.
The alcoholic patient and everyone involved should fully understand that alcoholism is a disease and that the responses to this disease, like craving, fear of withdrawal are not character flaws but symptoms, just as pain or discomfort are symptoms of other illnesses. They should also realise that treatment is difficult and sometimes painful, just as treatments for other life-threatening diseases, such as cancer, are, but that it is the only hope for a cure.
Treatment Goals
The ideal goals of long-term treatment by many physicians and organisations such as Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) are total abstinence and replacement of drinking with satisfying, time-filling activities that can fill the void in daily activity that occurs when drinking has ceased. But don't be disappointed if your loved one goes back to drinks, after treatment. Because abstinence is so difficult to attain, many professionals choose to treat alcoholism as a chronic disease; that is, they expect and accept relapse but they aim for as long a remission period as possible.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA),founded in 1935, is an excellent example of interactional group psychotherapy and remains the most well-known programme for helping people with alcoholism. It offers a very strong support network using group meetings which are open seven days a week in locations all over the world. A buddy system, group understanding of alcoholism, and forgiveness for relapses are AA's standard methods for building self-worth and alleviating feelings of isolation. AA's 12-step approach to recovery includes a spiritual component that might deter people who lack religious convictions. Prayer and meditation, however, have been known to be of great value in the healing process of many diseases, even in people with no particular religious assignation. AA emphasises that the 'higher power' component of its programme need not refer to any specific religion.
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