Thursday, February 18, 2010

Alcoholics Who Quit Drinking!

There's quite a difference between an active alcoholic and a heavy drinker. Although a heavy drinker may have a problem stopping or moderating, they can still manage it if there is sufficient reason to do so. An alcoholic, on the other hand, rarely takes advice from anyone! Many active alcoholics will continue drinking until they either die of a premature alcohol related illness, or they hit a rock bottom which serves as a wakeup call. The latter are the fortunate ones and these are the alcoholics who quit drinking.

A 'real' alcoholic is the master of justifiable excuses. These rationalizations fool nobody but the one in denial. Self denial is a common trait of many an alcoholic, and is the biggest obstacle in their chance of recovery. Knowledge on the dangers of continued alcohol abuse does little or nothing to influence the behaviour of someone obsessed with and addicted to this mind altering beverage. Just as a nicotine addict continues to smoke despite knowing all the health risks, so an alcoholic continues to drink regardless of the consequences.

Who are the Alcoholics who Quit Drinking?

For the alcoholic, there can be no success without failure, and no recovery without a deterioration in their quality of life. Such a lifestyle has to get the drinker to a point where they become sick and tired of being sick and tired. For the alcoholic, this can mean many things depending on their physical and mental pain threshold. Some will drink themselves onto the streets after burning bridges with friends and family members. They may have no real place to call home, no money, no job, and no prospects of getting gainful employment. In other words, they're living a life of total misery and isolation from society. Sometimes, but not always, these are the alcoholics who manage to reach out for help and eventually quit Drinking.

There are many others who have not lost all those things as in the example above. They still somehow manage to hold onto their partner, their family, their home, their job etc, even though these 'holds' are usually pretty fragile. But despite it all, they simply cannot stop drinking no matter how hard they try.

Their problem may or may not affect their job. It may or may not affect their ability to function during daylight hours. Yet every evening when they return home from work, they hit the bottle so hard that they are nothing short of useless to themselves and those around them. They might want to stop, and they have probably tried on numerous attempts to quit, but find they cannot. These types might appear to function ok on the surface, but they are usually broken individuals on the inside. Sadly, the majority of alcoholics never recover from their malady, and neither do they seek help. They often die a lonely and premature death as a direct result of abusing alcohol over many years.

The fortunate ones are those who suddenly wake up to the severity of their problem and reach out for help before it's too late. There is a lot of support at hand for recovering alcoholics, and addicts of other substances, and so no one needs to go through the pains of healing alone.

Alcoholics who Quit Drinking become better people!

It's a fact that alcoholics who quit drinking and go on to pursue a life of continued sobriety, do become better people as a result of their efforts. Recovery doesn't simply mean putting a plug in the jug and carrying on as normal. There are many underlying issues which need addressing as to why the sufferer became so addicted to the drug alcohol. Active alcoholics are obsessed with drinking to such an extent that their minds become warped to reasoning and logic. Over time, this has them living a life of imbalance and self destruction.

Most alcoholics are unable to quit by their own willpower and so seek the support of a fellowship, or self help group of some description. It's a proven fact that the most successful recovering drunks are those who stay in touch and interact regularly with other recuperating alcoholics. Most come to recognise that the next bender is just a drink away, and the best defence they have against this is to bond with those who are also serious about their long term sobriety.

Alas, only those drunks who want to get sober will ever get well. There are tens of thousands of active alcoholics who need to get dried up, but this 'need' is not reason enough for many. They have to really want it for there to be any chance of an actual recovery, yet wanting sobriety is not on the list of priorities for those fixated with the bottle.

Do you have a Problem with Drinking? Can't stop, won't stop, or don't know how to quit? You're not alone! More folks addicted to the drug alcohol today than ever before. There are solutions. Many including AA or Alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous Suffering is a choice, not a sentence! Find out more on recovering from addiction at the information site that Guides Folks towards Recovery


Living with an alcoholic is very taxing on the non-drinker because it is so all-consuming and stressful, and wears tremendously on your self esteem. Visit http://www.livingwithanalcoholic.org for some dos and don'ts

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