Tips For Helping Someone With Alcoholism
By Robert Thatcher
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When a person is affected by alcoholism in their family they often want to find a way to help the alcoholic. There are some great tips for
helping someone with alcoholism. Alcoholism effects everyone the alcoholic knows and for someone to offer the alcoholic help will benefit
everyone in the end. It is important for people to understand, though, that alcoholism is hard to fight and it takes dedication, time and
understanding to be successful.
| A woman who drinks alcohol while she is pregnant may harm her unborn baby (fetus). Alcohol can pass from the
mother’s blood into the baby’s blood. It can damage and affect the growth of the baby’s cells. Brain and spinal cord cells are
most likely to have damage. |
The following is a list of tips for helping someone with alcoholism:
- Keep focused on the task at hand. It can be frustrating but when the person helping the alcoholic shows frustration or anger the goal is
lost. An alcoholic is more likely to listen and work with someone who isn’t judgmental or pushy.
- Maintain a normal environment. Trying to change everything about an alcoholics life will just cause them stress which triggers their
alcoholism. It is important when helping that a person tries to keep things normal with the exception of eliminating alcohol.
| Regardless of how someone is diagnosed as alcohol dependent or how they came to realize they have a serious
drinking problem, the first step to treatment is a sincere desire to get help. Alcoholics who are pressured into treatment by
social pressure or forced to quit by circumstances rarely succeed in the long run. |
Find activities to replace the old alcohol-related ones. Since helping the alcoholic means taking alcohol out of their life it is important to
eliminate activities where drinking is a part. For example, if the alcoholic went to the ball game every Saturday and drank while there, then
that activity needs to be altered. It is often best to completely avoid the activity for a while until the alcoholic is further into recovery, so
in the mean time the person helping could find a new Saturday past time.
- Don’t make excuses for the alcoholic. Part of getting over alcoholism is learning to deal with the problems it caused. If the person
helping is taking responsibility or making excuses for the behavior of the alcoholic then they will never be able to completely recover.
| The process of detoxification from alcohol typically takes three to seven days, after which the alcoholic's
dependency on alcohol is primarily psychological, rather than physical or chemical. The goal after detox is to prevent a relapse
of excessive drinking. |
These four tips cover only the beginning of what a person can do to help someone with alcoholism. Alcoholism is a hard disease to fight, but
with help alcoholics have a better chance of winning that fight.
Robert Thatcher is a freelance author based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and
contributes on a regular basis to FreeNetPublishing.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Thatcher
| There are hundreds if not thousands of clinics, hospitals, and other facilities in the United States provide
alcohol detox, rehabilitation, and alcohol treatment services. These treatment options range from short-term in-patient,
residential hospitalization to long-term, outpatient education, therapy, and counseling. The immediate goal of the
professional staff at these facilities is to help the alcoholic learn how to remain sober and to resist the craving and the
urge to drink. The more long-term goal of these drug and alcohol abuse professionals, however, is to teach alcoholics
new coping techniques and different ways of thinking and behaving that will help them become productive and contributing
members of society. |
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