How A Psychologist Can Help With Problems Related To Alcohol

Recent statistics show that nearly 14 million people in the United States abuse alcohol—that’s 1 in every 13 adults. Men are more likely to abuse alcohol than women and those at highest risk are young adults between 18 and 29.

Alcoholism is a chronic illness characterized by the habitual consumption of alcohol. Some alcoholics drink daily. Others drink less often, but the drinking becomes out of control. When an individual drinks to the degree that it interferes with their physical and psychological health, or with normal social or work behavior, it produces both physical and psychological addiction.

Treatment requires a strong support system; those who try to stop drinking on their own set themselves up for failure and relapse. How can alcoholics regain control of their lives? Friends and family can help the alcoholic seek professional treatment. Once in treatment, community support groups or professional therapists trained in the treatment of chemical dependencies, are essential components on the road to recovery.

Many psychologists possess expertise in the treatment of addictions and chemical dependencies. When a person enters treatment with the psychologist, the following helpful elements are part of the care:

1.  The psychologist provides a safe environment. With the recognition that you or someone in your family has a problem with alcohol, there is a desire to talk with someone about it, someone who is understanding and could be helpful. However, the person who is struggling may not be ready to go to Alcoholics Anonymous yet or to stop drinking yet. A psychologist knowledgeable about addiction can provide an entry to explore the problem in a safe environment without a demand for change. Many valuable addiction treatment programs require first that one be ready to stop drinking. A psychologist can help persons in trouble with alcohol focus on the issue and, through psychotherapy, help them challenge their own denial if need be. The psychologist is able to meet the patient where the patient is currently…and provides useful understanding, information and advice.
 

2.  It may not be obvious that reliance upon alcohol is a problem. Many people who seek psychotherapy with a psychologist have little consciousness that they have an alcohol problem but seek help with marital problems, other relationship difficulties, anxiety or depression. Alcohol isn’t even identified yet. An understanding psychologist, based on training and experience, can often sense the likelihood that there is a problem with alcohol dependency in the background of the other difficulties being presented. The psychologist can then help introduce the idea that alcohol is a problem, can carry out an appropriate assessment of the role of alcohol in the pattern of distress, and help clarify the manner in which it contributes to the relationship difficulties or to the depression and anxiety. The psychologist then becomes able to help the patient shift to an understanding that alcohol consumption is a serious problem.
 

3.  A skillful psychologist can help those who are part of the patient’s life to avoid enabling the problem drinker and not to go along with the denial of the problem drinker. Drinkers and their significant others can learn to avoid rationalizing that it “just happened one time” or “I’m under a lot of stress.” All who share a life wit the patient can learn to pay attention to what they are observing and to look at the signs or signals that a person is becoming more out of control or exhibiting behaviors that are clearly a danger to themselves or others in connection with alcohol use.
 

4.  Psychologists can help significant others to speak up. Family and friends tend to excuse the behavior for a while. They do not want to see the other person’s out of control drinking. It is frightening. Sometimes the person is too intimidating. Nevertheless, those who care need to consider what happens if they do not speak. Persons may very well be upset or angry for some period of time in the presence of truth but on another level, they know they need help. Psychotherapy is valuable because it helps soften the stance of avoidance and of denial that a problem exists without pressure and does so in a fashion that avoids having the alcoholic feel attacked.
 

* Provided by Stephanie Brown, Ph.D., a psychologist and director of The Addictions Institute in Menlo Park, California, an outpatient clinic, and Research Associate at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, where she co-directs The Family Recovery Research Project.

 

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Last modified: 05/06/07