Alcoholism, also known as alcohol use disorder, has been a commonly misjudged social problem for centuries. Despite modern evidence and dissemination of its complex properties, many people still wrongfully view it as simply a bad habit that can be stopped with willpower. This misperception often leads to people accusing persistent addicts of wilful obstinacy, and then giving up without calling on professional help to resolve the problem.
We can help with alcoholism
Treatment for alcohol use disorder has improved tremendously, but not all centres actually employ the latest treatment techniques. We do.
Why alcoholism exists
Alcohol became deeply rooted as a socially popular drink over thousands of years, and from birth we are exposed to many influences that promote its usage. Nobody is safe from its addictive clutches, but most people escape it. Unfortunately, many are vulnerable to alcoholism, just as others are prone to other illnesses, but alcohol’s cultural entrenchment, and our very nature, anchors the disorder in society and necessitates recovery treatment.
How alcoholism starts
In the early stages of drinking, alcohol lends a treacherous helping hand. It soothes stress, suppresses inhibitions and generally uplifts the spirit. Indulgence is even required for acceptance as a “social-friendly” person at functions. With these blessings in mind, you start reaching for it more often. You become dependent on it and its chemical tentacles hook deep into your psyche. It takes control of everything that you are.
Where alcoholism ends
In the early stages of abuse you may feel you are in control, but it actually shows you are inclined to addiction. On the way, you gradually become focused on alcohol and all other things in life fade into less importance. You want to keep things you hold dear, yet addiction compels you to painfully sacrifice everything in favour of alcohol. The acknowledged long-term recovery solution is professional, modern psychotherapy.
Treatment is what you think
Historical efforts to restrain alcoholism were confined to severe physical punishments like public ridicule, assault and imprisonment. Though that failed to extinguish its social prevalence, the world persisted with it for centuries before finally deciding to look at other ways of dealing with it.
Only in fairly recent history, was alcoholism identified as a pathological problem that consists of more than frivolous obstinacy. Even so, the first intellectual solutions were of a universal type; a virtual blanket approach that applied to all and sundry. Although it was a step forward, its efficacy was limited. Sometimes it worked, but often it did not.
Some institutions still apply the universal method, an approach that inherited some of the historical punishment elements, albeit it less harsh. They punish you by constantly forcing you to publicly admit your dreadful sins and weaknesses, scaring you into staying sober and condemning you if you dare to question the prescribed assumptions.
In the immediate past, the known limitations of the universal approach and advances in technology kickstarted a vast amount of scientific research that exposed alcoholism as a complex disorder with an array of causes. It is so personal, and so diverse, that it requires individual attention to heal it. This rippled into wider research that produced fresh treatment programs to meet the challenge.
The latest therapeutic techniques are more effective, as it establishes a patient’s individual complexities and a personalised cognitive healing process. The process involves the integration of a number of proven new techniques to address the entire spectrum of the patient’s unique emotional triggers.
The newest protocols also aim to achieve lasting sobriety by restoring dignity and establishing independent coping skills and self-confidence, rather than undermining it as the older, universal approach does.