It’s excruciating to watch someone you love struggling with an alcohol addiction. That’s why the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence designated that each April would be Alcohol Awareness Month. It’s a chance for people who suffer from alcohol dependency to reach out to friends and family for support. It also offers the opportunity for the general public to learn more about this debilitating disease. Most of all, Alcohol Awareness Month helps decrease the needless shame endured by people who are trying to beat alcohol addiction. Here is how to help an alcoholic that you care about.
Helping a Loved One Cope with a Drinking Problem
Perhaps the most important thing you can do during Alcohol Awareness Month is to help the people in your life who cope with alcohol abuse. You can’t solve the problem for them — or allow the problem to drag you down — but you can provide emotional and practical support.
Educate Yourself
Being able to understand how alcohol dependency affects different people, both physically and mentally, is an important component of understanding the disease. Al-Anon is a great place to start. The organization sponsors support groups and provides educational information. Not only can you talk to others about the toll your loved one’s dependency takes on you, but you can become more knowledgeable about how to support that person.
While you are never responsible for the alcohol dependency of others, there may be things you’re unconsciously doing that makes it easier for that person to continue drinking. These behaviors might range from lending money to that person, to pay for rent, to being overly forgiving when your friend’s drinking interferes with your relationship.
Al-Anon helps you learn to curb that enabling behavior. It also gives you tools to keep yourself from being swept into the chaos of your loved one’s alcoholism.
Support Your Loved One’s Sobriety
Anything you can do that constructively aids your friend or family member’s sobriety efforts is helpful. The same goes for her hard work in putting her life back together after hitting rock bottom.
Offer to take him or her AA meetings or similar support groups. Be ready with positive feedback when she’s shopping for interview clothes, or putting together a resume. Be ready with sobriety tips that you’ve learned from your own research.
Suggest Treatment Programs
Alcohol abuse tends to damage internal organs of the body, causing you to become weaker and increase chances of illness. Adding physical activity into your day is shown to improve results in muscle strength and encourages positive habits.
Benefits of Physical Therapy For Alcoholism
Physical therapy offers exercise programs customized for each patient. These exercises help establish healthy daily habits and improve your recovery experience. Enhancing physical wellbeing gives people the confidence to want to heal their bodies and minds. Also, physical therapy and activity helps normalize the brain function during the withdrawal phase of recovery. Being active increases dopamine levels and regulates the body’s hormones.
Help Spread the Word to the Community
Reinforcing the stereotype that addicts are weak of character is the very thing that might keep an addict from believing recovery is possible.
You can help by participating in community events designed to help adults understand the support needed by someone who struggles with alcoholism. The programs also discourage kids from starting drinking, while.
Explain that some people are more physically prone to addiction than others, and that alcoholism crosses all economic, religious, racial and educational boundary lines.
