Escuche esta historia
--:--
3:44
How to help a family member with alcoholism?
The person with alcoholism depends physically and emotionally on their alcohol consumption, often without realizing how this has harmful consequences for their health.
This situation can be quite complex, take into account these signs and techniques to be able to address it.
Warning signs of a family member who suffers from alcoholism
Alcoholism, beyond being diagnosed by the amount of alcohol consumed, involves identifying the inability to control said consumption and its negative consequences in the lives of those who consume it.
We can be facing a problem of alcoholism if:
You often consume more alcohol than you planned.
You are unable to reduce your alcohol consumption.
You spend a lot of time searching for alcohol, drinking, and recovering from its effects.
Drinking alcohol causes problems at home, work, or school.
You have problems in your relationships because of your alcohol use.
His alcohol consumption causes him to miss out on socially important events.
Drinking becomes a socially conflictive point that does not allow the person to function normally and effectively within their social nucleus.
How to intervene with a family member with alcoholism?
It is not an easy situation, it is a disease and generally people who suffer from it are very resistant to realizing it and its effects.
Talking is extremely important, keeping silence and secrecy allows this behavior to continue to be repeated without consequences.
It seeks to generate a support network with family members and intervene in a calm, assertive way, and taking into account the following:
Express your feelings about your loved one's alcohol consumption and how that makes you feel, try to speak from how it affects you without recriminating the other's behavior as such.
Talk about the specific behavior that you have worried about him or her, try to stick to the facts and point out examples.
Be concerned about your loved one's health and let them know that they have your support in their recovery.
Avoid labels like "alcoholic" when you are talking about the problem.
Don't try to lecture or lecture him.
Don't try to use guilt or bribe him to stop drinking.
Don't threaten. Do not beg.
Offer your support during the process
He insists that he cannot get better without treatment and those indicated to treat him are addiction psychologists.
Remember that you cannot force him to receive help, but emphasize that you can count on their support and that you can get out of this disease with the help of specialists.
What should the family do?
Consider these tips for how to help an alcoholic who does not recognize his or her illness:
1. Go as a family to a professional who specializes in addictions to analyze and guide your case.
2. Maintain the family union in the face of the disease and agree together that the addicted person should be treated as the only option.
3. Find out and share this information with the rest of the family so that everyone is aware of what to expect and can support effectively.
4. Do not hide the disease or its consequences of other family members with the intention of protecting the addicted person or out of fear or grief, silence feeds the addiction.
5. Do not take responsibility for the consequences of the acts of the addicted person.
Inform the family about the reality of the disease and its situation, do not hide it, it is a pathology like any other. Stand firm before the addicted person, the only option for improvement is treatment with specialists.
Alcoholism is a disease like many others, and as you are, it requires treatment, it is important not to judge people with alcoholism and show them that they should seek treatment and as a family they have their support throughout the process, that you believe in them and in what is possible its recovery.
