How To Help Someone You Know Who Drinks Too Much National Institute on Aging

It’s important to be careful about your language when confronting someone about their alcohol abuse. Chances are that they are already feeling bad about themselves, and calling them names like “alcoholic” or “addict” will only make them feel worse. As recovering addicts and alcoholics ourselves, we’ve been those people who it seemed like it was impossible to reach. Hope and a solid plan of action are a powerful combination. Read on for 11 tips to help an alcoholic family member or friend.

Advice like “try harder” or “just drink less” isn’t helpful. Alcoholics are suffering from a progressive, and often fatal, disease. It would be like telling someone with diabetes to just try harder at not having diabetes. It doesn’t make sense and they wouldn’t be able to do it no matter how hard they tried. Learning to say “no” to an alcoholic may be one of the greatest gifts we can ever give them.

Talking with Your Partner About Their Alcohol Use: 8 Tips

Whether this is the first time trying to talk to them or your third, here are some of our best tips on how to talk to an alcoholic and help your loved one realize they need help with their addiction. Try not to allow your loved one’s behavior to dictate your own health and happiness. Schedule time into your day for relaxing, maintaining your own health, and doing eco sober house ma the things you enjoy. Your loved one’s recovery can be a long process, so you need to maintain a balance in your life. Dealing with a loved one’s alcohol problem can feel like an emotional rollercoaster and take a heavy toll on your health, outlook, and wellbeing. It’s vital that you stay safe, take care of your own health, and get the support you need.

By Buddy T

Buddy T is an anonymous writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Enabling occurs when someone else covers up or makes excuses for the person who has a SUD. As a result, the person with a SUD doesn’t deal with the consequences of their actions. Someone with AUD typically doesn’t want anyone to know the level of their alcohol consumption because if someone found out the full extent of the problem, they might try to help. Don’t allow the disappointments and mistakes of the past affect your choices today—circumstances have probably changed.

How to recognize if someone has alcohol use disorder

When it comes down to it, a successful conversation is about being kind and empathetic without enabling destructive behavior to continue. We’re here 24/7 to help guide you or your loved https://sober-house.org/ on through rehab and recovery. Submit your number to receive a call today from a treatment provider. Get professional help from an addiction and mental health counselor from BetterHelp.

• Someone with alcoholism has both a physical and psychological dependence on alcohol.
• Coming into the conversation with solutions in mind shows the person with the alcohol use disorder that you have put thought into the matter and are prepared to offer help and support.
• During this conversation, you should voice your concerns by showing your loved one how their alcoholism has impacted others.
• Whether an individual is suffering from substance abuse and/or alcohol addiction, our programs are structured to create a supportive environment where healing can begin.
• In college, I decided that wasn’t what I wanted to be anymore.

So continue to be supportive of your loved one’s efforts. And remember that millions of people who were once experiencing alcohol or other substance dependence are now living happy and fulfilling lives. It can be very hard to watch a loved one struggle with alcohol use.

Encouraging your loved one to get help

Dealing with the problem openly and honestly is the best approach. When someone with alcohol dependency promises they will never drink again but a short time later are back to drinking as much as always, it is easy to take the broken promises and lies personally. You may think, « If they really love me, they wouldn’t lie to me. »

Once your friend is ready to seek help for alcohol abuse, the next step is choosing a rehab facility. While there may be many options within their home state, looking within a defined radius limits treatment programs available. However, including out-of-state facilities will broaden the amount of services and facilities to treat your friend’s condition. It can be difficult watching someone you care about spiral out of control due to alcoholism.

Don’t become codependent

There are also ways of approaching someone with an alcohol use disorder that are counterproductive. For instance, being overly emotional and pleading with someone to stop drinking may only make the situation worse by increasing guilt and shame and the subsequent desire to drink. Preaching, lecturing, acting superior, or bribing someone about drinking are equally unhelpful.

• Ultimately, a person who has a drinking problem has to be willing to try to stop and to accept help or nothing will change.
• They are prepared to provide you with an individualized treatment plan that meets your unique needs and addresses co-occurring mental health conditions like depression.
• It can also cause stress and worry for friends and family.
• Once your friend is ready to seek help for alcohol abuse, the next step is choosing a rehab facility.

It’s not easy for either side, but when it comes down to it, they need to get better, and you need to be there for them. Living with, being friends with, and generally dealing with someone who has an alcohol use disorder, also known as alcoholism, can be challenging. An alcoholic can cause a number of issues, from damaging relationships to avoiding responsibilities and even being abusive in some cases. Alcoholism can make your loved one aggressive, irritable, violent, and irrational. So approach your loved one lovingly and only when they’re sober.