Search

Adabits

Adabits Alcohol Interventions

Alcoholism

What Is Alcoholism?

Kenzi Barnes

Alcoholism is considered alcohol addiction, the acquisition of both physical and psychological dependence on the consumption of spirituous beverages generated due to the acquisition of tolerance towards its consumption.  The body needs larger amounts of a substance to notice the same effects.

control over consumption

Alcoholism consumption

At the same time, its absence generates powerful symptoms typical of a withdrawal syndrome, such as dysphoria, agitation, convulsions, and other types of disturbance.

It is consumed so that much time is invested in obtaining alcohol or other relevant activities, or areas of life are neglected or impaired.

We are facing a situation in which the subject loses control over consumption, which is much greater than what would be intended and taking place despite the knowledge of possible aversive consequences for him and his environment.

alcohaldc

consumption

The uncontrolled and frequent consumption of alcohol can have dramatic consequences, generating cirrhosis of the liver, fatty liver, or even kidney dysfunction.

damage organs

The damage to these organs can be irreversible and lead to the need for a transplant or even death due to the destruction of said tissues.

Alcoholism

The alcoholic is frequently intoxicated, with blackouts and loss of consciousness common. The subject can sometimes reach an ethylic coma or death from cardiorespiratory arrest.

However, it is frequent that there is a desire to cease consumption, and one or more attempts may have been made in this regard (unsuccessful). Despite this, they often deny the existence of a dependency.

Behavior is also altered, ranging from aggressiveness to extreme passivity, and it is not uncommon for risky behaviors to be carried out while intoxicated.

Socially they can suffer the abandonment of their environment or generate great suffering for those around them.

How to help a person with alcoholism

addict3

Alcohol consumption is a socially accepted phenomenon that has been part of many cultures since ancient times.

learn more
addict1

However, many people consume excessive and prolonged alcohol over time and become dependent on this substance: we are talking about alcohol dependence or alcoholism.

learn more
addict4

This situation has serious repercussions for the subject, generating serious health problems or even leading to death.

learn more

It is about something dramatic that many families observe in one of their members not knowing how to act.

Avoid exposure to stimuli that trigger the drinking response

Human beings are used to doing certain things in certain places.

Although it is possible to drink anywhere, preventing the alcoholic from exposing himself to situations or environments facilitating consumption is very useful.

about us
alcohaldcdd

 For example, bars, discos, or parties are environments where the consumption of alcoholic beverages is common.

stop drinking

Also, do not drink in front of her either. It would make the subject think of alcohol and simultaneously send a contradictory message: I was hoping you could stop drinking, but I do drink.

Please take into account the possible role we play in addiction.

We have an example in the above blaming, abuse or abandonment situations, or excessive paternalism.

Generally, when we talk about alcoholism, we think of the subject in question as the one who has the problem.

However, sometimes the environment favors or has some role that makes it easier for the subject to resort to consumption.

Contact Us

Go to professionals.

Alcoholism is a serious chronic disorder whose existence can endanger the sufferer’s life. That is why it is essential to go to some professional to treat the different elements that condition and maintain alcohol consumption. In extreme cases, it can be very useful to go to a detoxification center (in some cases, it could even be required at the judicial level, although it is advisable to make them understand the need to go).

In this sense, it is advisable to take an interest in and actively participate in therapy to learn to relate to the subject and the symptom, acquire guidelines for action, and provide social support to get out of a situation that lasts. Making the subject reflect and motivate for change is also very useful.

…
Advance Support

Support Their Advances

Kenzi Barnes

Simply recognizing alcoholism is already a very difficult step for someone with this disorder. Moreover, the cessation of consumption is long (important: it should not be stopped unless there is medical monitoring due to the possible emergence of potentially fatal withdrawal syndromes, such as delirium tremens) and complex, having to treat different aspects, both behavioral and cognitive. Social and environmental support is a good prognostic factor and a stimulus to progress in treatment.

 Encourage Him To Attend Support Groups.

Alcoholics Anonymous is an association created to serve as a support group in order to solve problems of alcoholism and generate a recovery while allowing the subject to meet others who have gone through the same situation. In these meetings, the person can freely express those elements and aspects that he does not want or can tell us about his experience and compare his experience with that of others.

Pleasant Activities Incompatible With Drinking

One way to help a loved one stop drinking, or to maintain changes with treatment, is to explore and use enjoyable activities with him or her that are enjoyable and not compatible with alcohol use. It is about learning to have fun without needing to be drunk.

Prevention Of Relapses

It is a fundamental aspect of all addictions. Treatment can be successful, but the existence of different stressors or situations can lead to a relapse into alcoholism. That is why, as is already done in therapy, we consider the need to work on its prevention with elements such as those of the two previous points.

And From Therapy?

The preceding refers to ways to help the alcoholic from the family with social support for withdrawal from alcohol being one of the most important elements to maintain and generate perception and motivation for change. Nevertheless, also in psychological therapy, different methods are used to help the alcoholic to stop drinking alcohol, in addition to controlling the craving or craving for consumption. It is important to be able to attend therapy, given how much is at stake.

Therapy focuses first on acquiring awareness of the problem in cases where this does not exist, to subsequently make people reflect on the pros and cons of drinking behavior, reinforce motivation to change and act through various technical programs (including the community reinforcement approach, marital and couples therapy, cue exposure therapy with response prevention, contingency management, training in coping and social skills, controlled drinking programs) and finally maintain said changes with relapse prevention programs. Departures.

During the treatment, techniques from very different theoretical aspects can be used, the most common being cognitive-behavioral, systemic, and humanistic. It is also common for substances such as disulfiram to be used during treatment, which generates unpleasant effects on the body by interacting with alcohol so that its consumption acquires an aversive redness.

Therapy For Alcohol Issues: Searching For Obtaining Help

This guide has been prepared for those individuals, and their families and friends, who are seeking options to address problems related to alcohol use. It was intended as a resource for understanding the available treatment options and what to consider when choosing between them.

Do The Treatments Work?

The good news is that no matter how serious the Cause may seem, most people with an alcohol use disorder can profit from some form of treatment.

Research shows that about one-third of people who receive treatment for alcohol use problems no longer have symptoms one year later. Many others radically cut back on drinking and report fewer alcohol-related problems.…

Behavioral Treatments

Behavioral Treatments

Kenzi Barnes

Behavioral treatments share certain characteristics, which may include:

  • develop the skills you need to quit or reduce drinking
  • help develop a strong social support system
  • set achievable goals
  • avoid or deal with the causes that could lead you to relapse into drinking

Types Of Behavioral Treatments

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:  can be done individually with a therapist or in small groups. This form of therapy focuses on identifying the feelings and situations (called “cues” or “cues”) that lead you to binge drinking and managing stress that may lead to relapse.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy (Met) – This takes place over a short period to build and reinforce motivation that enables you to change your drinking behavior.

Brief Interventions:  These are short, individual, or small group counseling sessions, limited in time. The counselor provides information about the person’s drinking patterns and potential risks.

Ultimately, the fact that you choose to receive treatment may be more important than your approach as long as the approach avoids harsh confrontation, incorporates empathy and motivational support, and focuses on changing drinking behavior.

Tips For Choosing A Treatment

Professionals in alcohol use treatment advise what to consider when choosing a treatment program.

Generally speaking, gather as much information as possible about the program or professional before making a treatment decision. If you know someone who knows the program firsthand, ask about their experience.

Some Questions You Can Ask To Help You In Your Choice:

What Type Of Treatment Does The Program Or Professional Offer? 

Estimating whether the center provides all currently available methods or is based on a certain approach is important. You should determine if the program or professional offers medication and addresses mental health issues and addiction treatment.

Is The Treatment Tailored To Each Person? 

Finding the right therapy for the individual is important to their success. There is no single treatment that benefits everyone. Another thing that would help is to determine if the treatment will adapt to meet changing needs as they arise.

What Is Expected Of The Patient? 

It is in your best interest to understand what will be required of you to decide which treatment best suits your needs.

How does the program or professional handle relapse? Relapse is common, and it would be good for you to know how it is treated.

The Importance Of Persisting

Since alcohol use disorder can be a chronic, relapsing condition, persistence is key. It is rare that someone undergoes treatment once and never drinks again. More often than not, people try over and over to quit or cut down, relapse, learn from them, and try again. For many, continued follow-up with the treating professional is essential to overcome problematic drinking.

Relapse Is Part Of The Process.

Relapse is common among people recovering from alcohol problems. People with drinking problems are more likely to relapse during stress or when exposed to situations where they used to drink alcohol.

Just as some people with diabetes or asthma may experience flare-ups in their disease, a relapse into drinking can be seen as a temporary setback to full recovery rather than an outright failure. Medications can also discourage a person from drinking when at increased risk of relapse (e.g., divorce, death in the family).

Mental Health Issues And Disorders Due To Alcohol Use

Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand with excessive alcohol consumption. Studies show that people with alcoholism are two to three times more likely to experience major depression or anxiety disorder in their lifetime. When addressing alcohol use problems, addressing any accompanying physical or mental health issues is important.

Advice For Friends And Family

Caring for people with alcohol use problems can be extremely stressful. When you try to help your loved one, it is important that you also find a way to take care of yourself. It can help to seek support from others, including friends, family, the community, and support groups. If you find yourself developing your own symptoms of depression or anxiety, consider seeing a professional for help. Based on clinical experience, many health professionals believe that the support of friends and family is very important in overcoming alcohol problems. However, many friends or family members may be uncertain about how best to provide support. The groups for family and friends listed below can be a good starting point.

Remember that changing ingrained habits is difficult, takes time, and requires repeated efforts. In every path we undertake, we tend to fall into failures, learn from them and get back on track. Recovery from this disorder takes work and time.…

Addictions

Addictions

Kenzi Barnes

When talking about addictions, from drug or alcohol addiction to the different types of addictions, the discovery that a loved one is abusing drugs is usually slow and excruciating. There are small signs at the beginning. The person does not show up for some appointments, and a little money is missing, but it is not a big deal. Some of the person’s actions do not make much sense, but he explains them one way or another. However, the explanations fail to make complete sense. However, they can still be minimized.

Stranger things can happen. A car accident. A lost job. A lost weekend. Appointments with the children that he does not attend. Perhaps an angry tirade that has nothing to do with his character.

Perhaps the consumption of drugs or alcohol is noticed and talked about, the subject of addictions. The person agrees to stop using, says it was only a couple of times, and he (or she) did not like it anyway.

Family Intervention In Addictions

Among psychotherapists, there is often a difference in criteria about whether or not it is advisable to include the family in the treatment of problems. However, when we talk about addiction, there is unanimity in considering that the family of the addict is key when it comes to understanding and treating the addiction problem, which is why family intervention in the treatment of addiction is a fundamental piece in our center.

Nevertheless, although most specific addiction treatments include family assistance, the addict’s family has not always been understood, cared for, or used as a therapeutic resource, over time, addiction has been considered in different ways, and this has determined, at least in part, the way to involve the family.

At first, there was a tendency to think that addiction was a misfortune that fell on an innocent family, so family care was limited to offering them a space where they could be listened to and cared for in their suffering. Afterward, emphasis was placed on family relationships as the origin of the problem, thus offering a space for counseling and reducing their role to that of a watchdog of rules imposed by the program or treatment itself or by the therapist himself. This type of involvement, on many occasions, harmed the family by producing a feeling of guilt, which made them consider the addiction as a consequence of a lousy upbringing or a lack of affection.

Systemic family therapy has been one of the most effective when it comes to involving the family since it considers it a system in which each member influences and is affected by the behavior of the other.

In the same way that the addicted person needs to learn a series of strategies that treatment provides to change their relationship with the world and with themselves, the rest of the family needs a type of intervention not normally provided by specific addiction treatments.

Family Intervention helps to retain patients in treatment programs more than common types of interventions: This is so because family approaches manage to increase the commitment of patients and their families to treatment programs. The low drop-out rate in interventions based on family work is especially important in addictions since treatment adherence, that is, remaining in it until its completion is one of the greatest difficulties encountered in the intervention with these patients.…

Family Intervention

What Advantages Does Family Intervention Provide Over Other Treatments That Do Not Include It?

Kenzi Barnes

Sometimes, an addiction problem is the result of a conflictive family history where there have been significant deficiencies. Nevertheless, other times, the problem arises in completely normal families with an adequate history of education. That the family of an addict is problematic and conflictive is an important reason to start working with it. If it is not, the willingness to treat can make the problem easier to redefine and, therefore, to solve.

Normally, the addict uses drugs long before his family knows about it. However, the family often perceives the problem before the addict does. For this reason, it is common for the family of the addict to go to the professionals before the addict himself. On numerous occasions, the addict goes to treatment “pushed” by his relatives without awareness of the problem.

Redefining the problem, that is, instead of focusing on the addiction, focusing on the difficulties in the family relationship that exists at that time and the problems that this causes, regardless of whether the addict recognizes that the drug is causing some damage to his body or mind, allows the possibility of starting treatment. It is especially important when there is an addiction problem since when a treatment is rejected, it can take a long time until the decision to start it is made again, and during that time, significant physical, mental, economic, and relational deterioration can occur.

Regardless of whether the family has a role in the origin of the addiction, when the problem becomes evident, the family suffers, which is already a reason for them to receive professional help.

The family will try to use all its resources to help the addict. However, it will only sometimes work out well: some will do things that lessen the problem, others that do not produce noticeable changes, but unfortunately, others worsen the problem. Organizing efforts, discarding unproductive strategies, and promoting productive ones is another important reason to incorporate the family into treatment.

The family, like the addict, will need much information about the disorder, its origin, course, dangers, and the future to face the problem.

The family intervention’s therapeutic results are superior to treatments that only use guidance and counseling in the family area.

Specifically in addictions, receiving family intervention is more effective than receiving only individual and group intervention.

Family intervention has been shown to improve couple relationships and social integration after treatment.

Family approaches manage to reduce the level of post-treatment drug use.

In cases with a psychiatric disorder, treatments that include family intervention achieve reductions in psychiatric symptoms.

Drug-dependent adolescents treated with family interventions achieve better school functioning.

Family intervention significantly improves family functioning (communication, environment, flexibility, reduction of conflicts, etc.) and normalization and social incorporation.

…

Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy