Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

You Can’t Help an Alcoholic Until They’re Ready – Right?

For many years people, treatment professionals, family members and the like have all believed that in order for an alcoholic to recover from the alcoholism they have to WANT to recover. It’s been believed that you can’t help an alcoholic until they are ready to accept the help – right?

This statement couldn’t be further from the truth!

Although it may be easier to help an alcoholic that actually wants to get better, the truth is that even if the addict doesn’t necessarily want the help, attending an alcohol treatment center can be a very beneficial factor in their recovery and can actually change their outlook on recovery all together. The fact is, many alcoholics do not even realize that they have a problem which means that they will naturally deny help if it is offered. After all, who wants help when there isn’t a problem to be helped with?

Here’s a look at why you should not rely on an alcoholic to WANT the help before offering treatment and also why many alcoholics will refuse treatment but after being admitted into an alcohol treatment center still go on to make a full recovery:

Control Factors

Alcoholics do not realize that they have a problem and even if they do, a lack of control makes them deny the problem. Nobody wants to feel like they are out of control of their own functions but unfortunately, alcoholism causes the addict to experience a loss of control which prevents them from stopping the drinking habit on their own. Additionally, alcoholics will refuse treatment because they just plain don’t think that they need it.

Excuses

Alcoholics will make every excuse in the book to prevent from accepting the fact that they are out of control of their alcoholism and that they need help. Part of all programs offered at treatment centers includes helping an addict to realize that they are out of control to a sense and need help. Most alcoholics will make excuses for irrational behavior and attempt to rationalize with you about the behavior to make it seem better or less destructive. This doesn’t mean that you have to accept the behavior as normal nor do you stop trying to get the alcoholic to go into treatment. Just because an alcoholic rationalizes about their drinking habits does not make them unable to get treatment.

Hitting Rock Bottom

Finally, alcoholics do not have to hit rock bottom before they can get help. You may think that they do, you may think that they will actually want treatment once they hit rock bottom but this is not always true. When an alcoholic does hit rock bottom a number of things may occur. The addict may ask for treatment, they may decide it can’t get any worse and continue to deny help and keep drinking or they could die. Ultimately, even if an addict doesn’t want to go into an alcohol treatment center they can still be treated and make a full recovery from alcohol addiction.

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Drug addiction

Drug addiction is process of repeated drug use, rising craving of drugs and then state occurs where person cannot control this craving for drugs. This craving for drugs generally results in the seeking and use of drugs. This repeated use of drugs affects behavior of that person within the family and society. The physical symptoms….

How much is too much alcohol?

For Filipinos, no celebration is complete without an abundance of food and alcohol drinks. This is clearly evident during the long Holiday season in the country, with Filipinos partying almost weekly until Christmas or New Year’s day. Experts, however, warn that people should take stock of the harm social bingeing and the occasional or regular….

Treatment for co-occurring disorder

People with Co-occurring disorder face both mental problems as well as alcohol addiction problems at the same time. This is a condition that occurs very often and hence the first treatment for the co-occurring disorder is the medical detoxification. It generally takes three to five days for the alcohol detoxification in a medically supervised center….

Homeless alcoholism drains city

The Biggest Little City gained notoriety in a 2006 edition of the New Yorker after two Reno police officers estimated that ignoring one of the city’s homeless chronic alcoholics cost the city more than $1 million over the years. Malcolm Gladwell’s story quoted Reno police officers Patrick O’Bryan and Steve Johns explaining that Murray Barr,….

Drinking by Scots parents revealed by young

Twice as many calls are made to ChildLine by young people concerned about their parents’ harmful drinking in Scotland than the rest of the UK. More than 230 Scottish children called ChildLine with their fears last year, according to a study. The majority of youngsters reporting concerns about their parents’ drinking also talked about physical….