Of course our entire world is rocked to pieces when we discover that a close friend or relative is an alcoholic. Many people in the world do not understand what this type of thing means until it happens to them. Perhaps they have led a sheltered life or have had the privileged of wearing rose colored glasses of denial and suddenly the beauty of the illusion changed.
The feelings that accompany such an awareness can range from anger to joy and crying to laughing within seconds. When we discover that a person that we care about is struggling with drinking, the roller coaster ride of emotions is almost too much for us. This is why we must get help quickly. If we don’t, negative behavior patterns will begin to rule our thoughts and actions without us even knowing it.
Places such as the Al-anon program, designed to help friends and family members of alcoholics, can be a the perfect remedy for stopping the outrageous emotional highs and lows. The program only works if you work it though. Many people come to their first meeting expecting that they will get information on how to get the alcoholic to stop drinking. The standard answer is that we cannot control the problem drinkers therefore we are powerless. This is the first step of the program, realizing that we are powerless over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable.
Hopefully if you have just discovered that a relative is battling with an alcohol problem, you will learn how to avoid getting caught up in obsessing over the alcoholics behaviors. This is where the battle begins and will subtly take over your life if you do not learn how to stop it before it begins.
Usually obsessing over the alcoholic relatives behavior begins instantly., especially if they are near and dear to out hearts. The sooner we can get a few tools of wisdom from others who have learned how to survive under these types of circumstances the better.
When we discover a relative has a drinking problem:
1) Thoughts that we did something to cause this problem come to haunt us
2) Trying to figure out how to make them stop drinking is constantly on our minds
3) We try to control them in thousands of ways to keep them from drinking
If you have just discovered that someone close to you is having a difficult time with alcohol, do yourself and your relative a favor and get involved in a support group meeting for friends and family of alcoholics. Do it today and don’t delay.
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