Alcoholism Treatment | Addiction Treatment

Alcoholism Treatment: Creating a loving atmosphere

Alcoholism Treatment: The denial that fuels addiction

How do people who need alcoholism treatment end up being such liars? People who need alcoholism treatment, drug treatment, teen drug treatment, or gambling treatment tell incredible lies. Addicts lie when they have to, and they lie when they don't have to. They lie to get out of trouble, and the lies get them into more trouble. They lie to increase their pleasure and they lie to wallow in their self-pity. Alcoholism treatment is necessary to show the addicted person the truth about the extent of their alcohol or drug problem.

Why do people need alcoholism treatment?

The disease of alcoholism or addiction must lie, and it must continue to lie, or it cannot exist. Alcoholism cannot live in the light of the truth. You can't tell the truth to yourself and continue be an alcoholic or drug addict. With the truth, you would realize the problem, and get some help. All of the lies exist to protect the alcoholic or drug addict from a painful truth. The truth is, we are out of control, and if we keep up the addictive behavior, we are doomed. The truth causes us great anxiety so we defend ourselves from the truth. We distort the truth just enough to feel like nothing is wrong. The reason alcoholics need alcoholism treatment is they are lying to themselves and they don't know it. They couldn't tell you the truth if they wanted to, because they don't know what it is. This self-delusion grows gradually over many years. People who need alcoholism treatment think they are fine even when they are dying.

Minimization

The first lie we tell ourselves is called minimization. This is where we take reality and make it smaller. We think the problem is not that bad. If an alcoholic takes an eight ounce glass and fills it up with ice, and takes a shot glass full of whiskey, and pours it over the ice, and holds the glass up to the light, they will be disappointed. A shot glass full to the brim with whiskey makes a disgustingly small dent in an eight ounce glass.
If you are an alcoholic, you are not going to use a shot glass. If you have a shot glass at home, it is gathering dust. You are going to pour your whiskey until you see some color in that glass. Now, if we were to take this drink, and measure how many shots are in it, we are going to find four, maybe five, shots in the glass. Here's how we minimize: We think, and believe, that this is a drink, one drink, but it's not one drink, it's really four drinks.
We can do the same thing with beer cans. If you are a beer drinker, you have a considerable collection of empty beer cans at the end of the week. When you take the garbage out, you  have got, maybe two big plastic trash can bags full of cans. As you are going out to take out the garbage, you may think, "Boy, I hope the garbage person doesn't think I'm drinking all this beer." At that time, you may put one of the bags on your garbage pile, and the other one on your neighbor's pile.
Those of you who are into cocaine, remember when you have just picked up your stash. You have this nice big pile of cocaine on your kitchen table. You feel self-satisfied. You have more than enough. Your treasure chest is full. You are content. You feel a great peace. This is going to last a long time. But, the next morning you're wondering who got into your stash. Where did it all go? You used it all that’s where it went.
We can minimize about our mounting problems. Everyone gets a couple of DWI's don't they? Almost everybody gets a divorce. It's not so bad to spend a couple of nights in jail. We're a good person, we're not bad, we were just unlucky, and the cops were after us. We take what is real and make it look smaller. We lie to ourselves, and we believe the lie.

Rationalization

The next lie we tell is called rationalization. This is where we have a good excuse. Probably the most commonly used excuse for drinking is, I had a hard day. It follows, therefore, that if I had such a hard day, I deserve to get blasted. Anyone, who had the hard day that I had, would need to relax. Let's have a few beers, a couple of joints. In rationalizing we may blame our problems on someone else. "If you would just lighten up," we might say, "I could straighten things out." We may think remorsefully of all we could have been, if we had been born wealthy, or been given the right brakes. We look at all those successful people and we hate them. We never had such a chance, we tell ourselves. There's no God. If there was a God, where was God when I needed God.

Denial

The last type of lie that we tell ourselves and this one is the most characteristic of chemical dependency is denial. Denial is a stubborn angry refusal to see the truth. Here we refuse to see what is right before our eyes. We block out what is real until we really don't see it at all. The best way to show you how this works is to give you an example. You are walking down the street and it is a very hot day. It is ninety-five degrees in the shade. Sweat is pouring down your face. As you walk up the road, watching the heat waves rise up off of the asphalt, people are standing alongside of the road with pails full of ice water. As you pass each of them, they throw their bucket full of reality in your face. "Your wife's divorcing you! That's your third DWI! The boss won't put up with you anymore! You're in trouble with your parents again!" You see the pails of water, you see them throw them in your face, you hear the words that are shouted at you, but you do not experience the full reality of what's happening, you don't get the full emotional impact of the problems. With your whole life falling apart, you are walking up the street as if nothing was happening at all. The people around you are amazed. Why doesn't he see? Why doesn't she understand? Why can't they see what's happening to them?

How to live in the truth

A key component of alcoholism treatment is uncovering the truth. Recovery from addiction demands rigorous honesty. You can't see what's happening to you because you are lying to yourself. You can't see the truth because you believe the lies. You are completely fooled. In treatment the full reality of what has been happening to you will be before you. It will be painful, but the truth will set you free. Treatment is an endless search for the truth and you must be willing to listen to what others say. You must try to be open to what people tell you about yourself and your actions. We reflect to each other what we see. We will try to find the truth together. What we cannot do alone, we can do together.

1. Have you ever tried to cut down on your drinking?
2. Have you ever felt annoyed when someone talked to you about your drinking?
3. Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?
4. Have you ever had a drink in the morning to settle yourself down?
5. Have alcohol or drugs ever caused you family problems?
6. Has a physician ever told you to cut down on or quit use of alcohol or drugs?
7. When drinking/using drugs have you ever had a memory loss (blackout)?

            If the patient answers any one of these questions yes that’s a red flag for alcoholism. If they answer two questions yes, that’s probable alcoholism. Make sure you don’t just ask the patient. Remember alcoholics live in a series of carefully constructed lies designed to keep them from feeling the fear of the truth.

Rehab Video: A New Purpose Part 1

Addiction stops your spiritual progress. Begin a new spiritual journey: www.godtalkstoyou.com
Read the latest research for a school paper or project from the National Library of Medicine

Ask me a question