Keeping It Simple – Key Concepts for Alcoholism Recovery
Alcoholism recovery. Sometimes when a person is seeking help – either for themselves or a loved one whom they believe drinks too much – the way forward feels crowded, confusing and often overwhelming. To start recovery, one has to stop drinking entirely and then treat their disease for what it is – namely, a chronic, often relapsing brain disease.
To help simplify next steps, here are three key concepts for alcoholism treatment and recovery on which a person who has been diagnosed with alcoholism or one who has decided on their own they are an alcoholic may want to focus:
Understand Alcoholism as a Brain Disease
Though this may sound scary, it’s not as scary as it may sound. Disease by its simplest definition is something that changes cells in a negative way. Addiction – of which alcoholism is one – changes cells in the brain. This is what makes it a brain disease. Thus, a confirming first step is to fully understand the disease of addiction. The Addiction Project, a collaboration of NIDA, NIAAA, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and HBO, has an excellent website that explores all facets of the disease from its causes, its symptoms, effective treatment options, relapse prevention and the like.
Accepting An Alcoholic Cannot Drink ANY Amount of Alcohol
This can be very difficult to do. It seems counter-intuitive that a person who wants to stop anything – even drinking – should be able to do so or at least cut back how much they drink. This is not true in the case of alcoholism because of the way alcohol has hijacked the brain’s circuitry and will be triggered if ANY amount of alcohol is consumed. The following pages on The Addiction Project help explain this: “Addiction and the Brain’s Pleasure Pathway: Beyond Willpower,” “Let’s Talk About Craving,” and “Why Do Some People Become Addicted.”
Know There Are Many Options for Treating Alcoholism and Succeeding in Recovery
While we commonly think of AA when we thing of alcoholism treatment, it is but one option. Others include: nutrition, exercise, sleep and mindfulness practices (believe it or not, these actually work on the brain’s infrastructure – helping with the health of neurotransmitters, for example); cognitive behavioral therapy; non-12 step self help groups; treatment for a mental illness in the case of a co-occurring disorder; and more. Check out The Addiction Project’s page, “Treatment.”
Lisa Frederiksen
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