(ThyBlackMan.com) Have you realized your loved one doesn’t have a drinking problem, they have an alcohol addiction?
When you love an alcoholic, you want to help. Unfortunately, help from a family member is often the last thing an alcoholic wants—at least not at first.
You can tell them how you feel, threaten to leave, and even take away their alcohol. None of those things work as long-term solutions. Your loved one needs a deeper kind of help.
Here are 5 things you can do to help a person you care about overcome alcohol addiction.
1. Shine the Light on It
Most people work hard at covering up for their loved one who has an alcohol addiction. Covering up is another word for enabling. When you enable, you help them continue living with their addiction.
Covering up, or enabling, isn’t only about making excuses for the addict’s behavior. Enabling is more than bailing them out when they get in trouble. It can also mean you do things for them instead of allowing them to be self-sufficient.
No one, including the alcoholic, wants others to find out the depth of the problem. For you, it’s embarrassing and may make you feel like a failure. For them, it means someone might make them get help.
Shining the light on the problem is the first step towards helping your loved one.
2. Let Them Hit Rock Bottom
This sounds cruel, doesn’t it? No one wants to see a loved one suffer but sometimes it’s the only choice you can make.
When an alcoholic reaches the point where they lose a job, get a DUI, or end up in jail, often the best thing you can do is nothing. When you continue rescuing it usually only results in repeat behavior.
If you can’t imagine letting your loved one hit rock bottom, you may need help learning detachment. Keep in mind the effects of alcohol, including the results of drunk driving is not just for addicts.
If you can detach from the problem, not the love you feel for the person, you let them experience the painful effects of their addiction.
3. Don’t Give Ultimatums
If you’ve begged someone to stop drinking, you likely know pleading doesn’t work. Maybe you’ve moved from begging to making threats. If they don’t stop, you’ll leave or make them leave.
In most cases, they won’t stop drinking.
Don’t take it personally but it’s not uncommon for an alcoholic to choose alcohol over the people that love them the most. When you offer ultimatums, it only results in frustration and hurt for them and you.
Instead of ultimatums, offer legitimate options for help.
4. Gather Your Resources
One reason helping an alcoholic is a challenge is that most of us don’t know where to find the resources the addict needs for recovery.
While there’s a vast amount of information out there on recovery, it’s often overwhelming for both you and the person you’re trying to help.
Before you offer help, spend time researching alcoholism online. Talk to someone who specializes in working with alcoholics and their families. Offer the phone number for a treatment center you feel is a good fit for them.
By gathering resources for someone you care about, you can help make the choice to get help feel less stressful.
5. Be a Committed Supporter
It’s one thing when you offer to go with someone to talk to a counselor at a treatment center. It’s entirely different when you commit to stand by and support them through the entire journey of recovery.
Also, part of supporting them includes making a commitment to finding help for yourself. It all works together.
Continued support is vital for an alcoholic in recovery. It’s essential for their success.
Help Someone Overcome Alcohol Addiction
It’s never easy to watch a loved one struggle with addiction. We hope you found some useful ideas about how you can help someone you love overcome alcohol addiction.
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Staff Writer; Peter Short