Rehab Psychology - How to Help an Alcoholic Get Into Rehab

Very often when an alcoholic has reached their lowest point, their so-called bottom, they will only then be ready to enter a drug rehab facility. Why is this? Why must an alcoholic be humbled before they are willing to ask for help. It is not because they do not want it. In fact, the alcoholic or drug addict generally will do anything to change the path that they are on. The reason the alcoholic does not ask for help sooner is because he or she believes that they can do it themselves.

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This is not entirely a bad thing. After all we live in a culture were self-reliance is considered a much desired attribute. And alcoholics, as a group, tend to have a healthy sense of pride. The fact of the matter entering rehab can be considered a person's greatest failure. It is them admitting that they can not succeed at life without help.

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Or at least that is how it often is seen. Because the alcoholic, in addition to having a healthy ego also carries with them a strong feeling of shame. It is an embarrassment that they have messed up their life. They feel it and it wears on them. But, the fact of the matter, is the alcoholic has not failed. As anyone with any experience can attest, the alcoholic who has found sobriety sits on an entirely different perch than the individual who has yet to admit their drinking problem. An alcoholic with some sobriety or clean time under their belt views their condition as a disease that they were powerless to control. And they see their so-called bottom as an inevitability that allowed them to reach a healthier place in life. It was, indeed, a necessary evil.

So, the key to convincing an alcoholic to get help is to let them fail. If a person (usually a family member or girlfriend/boyfriend) is propping them up, what we call enabling) then it can take the addict that much longer to reach the place where they realize they can not achieve sobriety on their own. They must ask for help, and usually as a result of this, they find themselves in a drug and alcohol treatment center or rehab. In rehab the alcoholic learns of the disease of alcoholism and comes to regard themselves as person who can be redeemed.. No matter how far down they have fallen, they will see new ways in which they can find meaning in their life.

So, returning to enabling, the question becomes, how can the addict realize that he or she can not overcome alcoholism alone when they have not been allowed to fail. It becomes critical for the family and the friends of the alcoholic to stop covering up, stop providing money, and stop taking actions to abet the using behavior. Usually, what happens when an alcoholic is cut off they quickly enter a downward spiral and within a short time, are finally willing to accept outside help. Now, you will need to explain to your loved one that you will support them in going into treatment. This is important because it is possible that they can become so overwhelmed if they see no way out that they will consider doing something to harm themselves. But once you've made the rehab option available you need to get out of the way and allow them to fail to a certain degree.

This may seem harsh, but the key to getting your loved one to go to rehab is to let them see that so long as alcohol and drugs remain a part of their lives, they will not be successful. They will not achieve a sense of fulfillment and will not get the help that they need. In the end, if you allow them to realize what they need on their own, then the results will be far greater for the alcoholic or addict and his or her family as well.

Rehab Psychology - How to Help an Alcoholic Get Into Rehab

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