How to Help an Alcoholic

Alcohol is a strong addiction, and any assistance an alcoholic receives helps further the recovery process. The support of family and friends plays a significant role in an alcoholic's recovery. However, most people are unsure of what they can do to help an alcoholic family member or friend, and so very often they choose not to say anything at all. The first step is to understand the addiction. Reading literature about alcohol addiction will also help you confirm if the said friend or family member is in fact an alcoholic. An alcoholic treatment center is also a good source of information.

Many of those who have an addiction are in denial, or find it difficult to ask for or accept help, which means that you have your work cut out for you. A factor that must be well understood that there are no hard and fast rules of helping an alcoholic, for each person is different. Every alcoholic's needs and responses differ, as do their reasons for drinking and their readiness for treatment.

What to Do?

The first step in helping an alcoholic friend or family member is being sure that person in question is addicted. If there are clear alcohol addiction signs, then you need to contact someone who can help, such as a mental health center, Alcoholic's Anonymous, a family physician, or a minister. These people are accustomed to dealing with addicts, and are equipped to talk to the alcoholic, about his/her problem and treatment.

If the person is a family member, you could hold an intervention, where each member can tell the alcoholic how his/her drinking affects them. You can do the same with an alcoholic friend. However, make sure you do this when a person is sober, and also do it in a manner that doesn't seem like an attack.

Studies have shown that, for every person with an alcohol or other drug addiction, at least four others are affected by their behavior. If you are among the four, you need help too. Speak to a counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist or any other mental health professional to help you deal with the stress of the addiction, and you could also join a support group for family members/friends of alcoholics.

What Not to Do?

In trying to help a person who has become an alcoholic, covering up for the person is a bad approach, and constitutes enabling. If you help and support an alcoholic physically (with work and chores) and financially, you are actually making the problem worse, as they can focus entirely on alcohol, and not have to take responsibility for their actions. It is important to find the right balance between being supportive and coddling the person.

Other things you should not do is trying to use emotional blackmail to get them to stop. Among the guidance given on how to help an alcoholic spouse, is never to say, "If you really love me, you'll stop drinking" or "I'll leave you if you don't stop drinking", as a means to get them to quit. As the parents of an alcoholic, it is not advisable to keep the person away from friends who you construe as bad influences, or locking him/her in their room. Other ineffective measures include hiding all the alcohol in the house and cutting off their allowance. Trying to reason with an addict also does not work.

What all the above boils down to is that one must not make or try helping an alcoholic to quit on his/her own. The best way of how to help a person to quit the habit is to get him/her treatment at a facility meant for the purpose. It is very difficult for an alcoholic to quit on his/her own, and trying to threaten or coerce the person to do so will end in failure.