How Does Alcoholism Affect People?

One of the biggest problems with alcohol abuse is that it affects many more people than just the alcoholic. Obviously the alcoholic is the one suffering the most and dealing with a very debilitating disease, but close friends and family members also suffer alongside the alcoholic as they watch this person drink themselves to death while they can do nothing about it.

I mean they can try and help the alcoholic as much as possible, and I’m sure they do, but stopping drinking has to come from the alcoholic him or herself, and until that day comes, friends and family have to sit back and watch their loved one continue to harm himself.

How Alcoholism Can Affect an Alcoholic?

Alcohol addiction obviously affects the alcoholic in many different ways, most of them negative. One of the most negative things that happens to an alcoholic is that they will become so addicted to alcohol that it becomes difficult for them to stop drinking. They need to wake up and have a drink right away just to stop their body from shaking uncontrollably, and they will often need to take a drink just to feel normal.

This constant drinking is devastating to the body and if it keeps up it will kill the alcoholic. The human body wasn’t meant to handle too much alcohol and it will eventually shut down once it reaches a certain point. At the same time, the body is always healing itself and much of the health ailments that have developed will heal quite rapidly.

How Does Alcoholism Affect Friends and Family of the Alcoholic? – One of the toughest things in the world to deal with is watching somebody you care for spend their life in pain. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the friends and family of an alcoholic go through every day. They just don’t understand that the alcoholic is suffering from a disease, and their loved ones just can’t relate to what this person is going through.

They look at the alcoholic like he or she is a screw-up and like they are doing this to purposely hurt them. But the alcoholic does not want to live this way just as much as you don’t want to see them doing so. But they’re struggling with an addictive disease that they can’t stop themselves no matter how hard they try.

The alcoholic often is afraid to ask for help because they feel like they aren’t worthy of it in a lot of cases, and they also feel like the fear of stopping drinking is so strong that they’d rather continue going down the downward spiral instead of giving up alcohol and facing the unknown. The fear of the unknown is often a big reason why an alcoholic will continue to drink even though they know that it is killing them.

What Friends and Family Can Do to Help the Alcoholic – I would recommend that you hold some form of an intervention with a professional present so that you can try and convince the alcoholic that they need to seek help and treatment. If the alcoholic agrees to the terms that you set up the intervention specialist will immediately help the alcoholic pack and get them on their way to some kind of a treatment program before they have the opportunity to change their mind.

This is how alcohol addiction affects many people. It’s very difficult to live with and it’s really tough to watch somebody you care about struggle with this difficult disease. The amazing thing is how fast this has the potential to turn around. It is of course not an overnight process, and yet there are amazing stories of recovery every day where people surmount seeming impossible problems, and end up leading extraordinary lives.