You didn’t ask for this, living a life of daily survival and emotional uncertainty.  When you got married, you thought you were getting a partner for life to go with you through thick and thin.  You thought you would have a loving competent parent to raise your kids with you.  Instead, you have what amounts to another child in your home.  This isn’t what you signed up for.

Losing A Spouse Gaining A Child

Having a spouse with alcoholism in your home is much like raising an out-of-control child.  The worst part is that you have no other parent partner to work with.  That’s who your spouse was supposed to be.  Instead, you wonder and worry as the hands of the clock circle around and around.

The hours creep by, and still they aren’t home. When they do come home raging drunk, will they be angry or humorous?  What will they want you to do for them when they come home?  Make a sandwich, talk for hours, have sex?  Or your worst nightmare, you’ll get a phone call that they are in jail or in a car accident from driving drunk.

Alcoholism A Rough Ride For Everyone

All you can hope for is that they pass out quickly.  It’s almost a nightly thing now, no semblance of a peaceful home life anymore with your spouse.  They spend hours out drinking their day away, you stay at home lonely and stressed.

Being in the wake of someone else’s alcoholism is a rough ride indeed.  There may be some painful predictability about, and some true unknowns.  What are they capable of?  What will make them stop drinking so much?  What kind of horrible catastrophe am I going to face with them because of their drinking?  How will that affect our family?

Time For Alcohol Rehab Discussion

You may know it’s time for them to go to alcohol rehab, you may have even talked to them about it.  If you have been met with rejection and insults, then you may hesitate to do it very often.  Maybe it’s time for you to make a stand, draw a firm line in the sand.  Maybe it’s time for you to make a plan for you and your children if your spouse continues to refuse alcohol treatment.  Can you imagine living this way much longer?

If they show no signs of slowing down, you and your children are at risk.  You will need information, some supportive people around you, and a lot of courage.  Call your local alcohol rehab center today to find out more about what is available for your spouse.  Ask how they might be able to help you talk to your spouse if you aren’t sure.  This may be the time you got your spouse some help and your family out of the way.

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As an alcoholics or drug addict, you have a distinct disadvantage in your way of thinking.  Your addiction has lead you to become accustomed to instant gratification. Whatever your whim, that’s what you shall have. Sadly, that’s not a very effective way to live in today’s world. Society expects patience and tolerance for change.  So how can a recovering alcoholic or drug addict survive?  By taking care of your sobriety.

Sobriety Is A Living Thing

If you ever had an indoor houseplants or a pet, you know they won’t survive if you ignore them. At least an animal has means of getting your attention. A plant will simply wither and die in the corner. Either way these living beings depend on your attention to keep driving. It can help you as a recovering alcoholic or drug addict to think of your sobriety as a living being.

You must tend to your sobriety every day, possibly several times a day. If you don’t, you may or may not notice the changes right away. Life may feel a little more difficult. Your mind may start to drift toward the negative. You may not feel that energy used to have a few weeks or months ago. You might find yourself getting more angry at certain things or people in your life. You might start to distance yourself from others that cut down on your aggravation and frustration.

Addiction Relapse Sneaks Up - Frog In Boiling Water

Hopefully, you would notice these changes and directly connects them to your lack of attention on your sobriety. However, this is often like the frog in the pot of boiling water.  The frog starts out in a pot of cold water. The temperature is turned up so gradually that by the time the frog realizes it is getting hot, it is has already gotten scalded.

Thankfully, relapse risk doesn’t have to mean you are completely scalded. You may have a close call and catch yourself before you take a drink or hit up with old buddy for some drugs.

Prevent Relapse Before Things Get Bad

When you part in drug or alcohol rehab, you get a lot of support for keeping up good sobriety habits. When your drug rehab is over, the picture can get a little fuzzy. So what does taking care of your sobriety look like in your everyday life?

- Eating healthy meals on a regular basis every day

- Sleeping about the same amount of time every night

- Going to bed at about the same time every night

- Getting physically active a little each day or week

- Staying in touch with people you trust to be honest

- Attending support groups or alcohol treatment

- Focus on being generous to others

- Taking care of any medical issues promptly

- Develop healthy interesting hobbies

- Spend time developing and mending relationships

Caring For Sobriety Is Caring For Yourself

The above list is pretty basic, but you probably get the idea. This is a lot like brushing your dog every week, feeding her twice a day, walking her daily, clipping her nails weekly, taking her to the vet, etc. You don’t wait to do those things until your dog is starving or shaggy mess.  You do these things because you love your dog and you want her to stay healthy everyday. Your sobriety needs the same kind of devotion and attention. When you take care of your sobriety, your sobriety will take care of you.

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You’re at the end of your rope, you are unable to keep up with your addiction anymore.  It’s driven you straight into the ground, and now you are going to start alcohol rehab.  It seems so big right now, so all encompassing.  But in truth, it’s just the beginning of a whole new lifestyle.

Alcohol Rehab Is The First Step To Take

Every journey has to start somewhere.  Your journey of sobriety can start with alcohol rehab.  But just because you are doing something big at the beginning doesn’t mean that’s all you have to do.

Alcohol rehab is definitely a large commitment, no doubt about it.  And it is hard work to learn how to face the truth, pull the blinders off your eyes.  It’s a time for learning and opening up.  The big challenge comes when you have to put that experience to daily use.

Alcohol Rehab Not A Cure For Alcoholism

You need to know that alcohol rehab is not a cure for alcoholism.  It is a place to live a different life for a while, learn ways of coping, and start replacing destructive habits with healthy ones.  It’s an opportunity, but it isn’t the whole story.

There is no known cure for alcoholism - not inpatient alcohol rehab, not outpatient treatment, not medications, nothing.  It is something that you have to be aware of and live with for the rest of your life.

Certainly, you can have significant periods of sobriety - decades even.  But to consider yourself cured can be a slippery slope headed toward relapse. The moment you assume that you don’t have to pay attention to your vulnerabilities could be the moment you slide towards your addiction.

Journey of Sobriety Much Bigger Than Alcohol Rehab

It can be tempting to see alcohol rehab as a place to get “fixed up” so you don’t have the addiction bothering you anymore.  You may go to alcohol rehab more than once in your life if you have a relapse.  This is completely normal because you will have changes throughout your life.

If your focus on recovery doesn’t keep up with these changes well enough, you may have relapse.  Yet even then, alcoholism recovery is so much more than any particular time spent alcohol rehab.  How rehab affects your regular life tells the true story of your recovery.

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A DUI, a pending divorce, assault charges, and financial despair - these are common problems an alcoholic may face because of their destructive behavior.  Is there any way to turn things around?  Check out a few of the more destructive behaviors of a typical alcoholic and learn how a choice can make all the difference.

Foolish Financial Choices

When you really need to keep your alcohol stash going, you won’t let much get in the way.  Many alcoholics borrow money from people, often with little intention or maybe no ability to pay them back.  Others steal money or take cash off the top of their paycheck.  And that’s just to get the alcohol.

When a person is drunk a lot, they may do a lot of foolish things with their money.  They might gamble, decide to buy drinks for lots of other people, or make impulse purchases with money they can’t afford to spend.  They may also create expensive problems like getting into a car accident, getting arrested for DUI or an assault (fines, legal fees, etc), losing their job.

Unhealthy Relationships

An alcoholic is primarily concerned with one person - themselves.  Every complaint, every excuse, and every broken promise all reflects on their issues.  Most times, alcoholics can’t be counted on and get a reputation of being flakey.  They can sometimes be overly emotional and irrational, making them hard to get along with.

Alcoholics can sometimes become aggressive and even violent.  In a drunken rage, they may become abusive to their spouses or children.  If they had a blackout, they may have no recollection of their actions and not likely believe what anyone says.

Taking Way Too Many Risks

A hallmark of alcoholism or other drug addiction is poor judgment.  Alcohol intoxication makes a person’s inhibitions loosen up.  In other words, they don’t stop and think about what they are doing.  They misjudge the risk involved in driving intoxicated, walking home in the middle of the night from a party, and getting aggressive with another drunk person in a bar.

The poor judgment isn’t limited to times of immediate intoxication.  Once their judgment has been altered, they are likely to misjudge lots of other situations as well.  They are used to instant gratification or avoiding reality.  Therefore, they take lots of unnecessary risks because they can’t perceive reality well. And most likely, they began drinking heavily with the specific purpose of avoiding reality.  Unfortunately, the consequences of risky behavior almost always come back to haunt the alcoholic in some way.

Change Destructive Behaviors Of Alcoholism

The first step of changing these behaviors is to become sober.  For the best chance at lasting sobriety, an alcoholic needs some form of alcohol rehab.  There are many outpatient and inpatient alcohol treatment programs around the country.  Alcoholics Anonymous is not a alcohol treatment program, but it has provided support and education about alcoholism to millions of people around the world.  When those destructive behaviors finally catch up to the alcoholic, it’s time to make a choice.  Alcohol rehab can be the choice that changes everything.

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Sleep is a mysterious yet vital activity for people and animals alike.  Getting a good night’s rest can be the difference between a positive day and a torturous day.  Alcoholism does a lot to ruin a person’s sleep while they are actively drinking and even possibly for years after they become sober.  You don’t want to miss the truth about how sleep and alcoholism connect.

Sleep Disrupted Second Half of Night

Most people assume that having a night cap will help them nod of to sleep and avoid insomnia.  Or, if they are drinking with friends in the evening, at least they won’t have any trouble sleeping that night.  Alcohol may make a person drowsy at first.  But the big problem comes when they wake halfway through the night and have fitful or no sleep the rest of the time.  That can make the next day fairly miserable.  Even just a few drinks anytime in the evening can have these far reaching effects on sleep.

The older a person is, the more dangerous nighttime drinking can become.  Older people can become more intoxicated with the same amount as a younger person.  So while they might think that having one or two drinks at bedtime isn’t a big deal, the effects may overwhelm them if they wake in the night.  They might become unsteady and increase their chances of falling, which may already be higher because of their age.

Alcoholism and Sleep Problems

Since even a small to moderate amount of alcohol can adversely affect sleep, it’s easy to see how alcoholics would have some significant sleep problems.  It takes much longer for them the fall asleep and the nighttime waking is very disruptive.  Unfortunately, even a person who has been sober for years can have continued sleep problems.  The night disruption and ease of falling asleep may improve after several months or it may remain.  There is no way to know how any one person will react during their alcohol treatment.  Lack of feeling rested can be a strong relapse trigger for some recovering alcoholics.

Restore Sleep Patterns By Starting Alcohol Rehab

Going to alcohol rehab won’t necessarily mend an alcoholic’s sleep problems right away.  It can take a long time for sleep to become even somewhat restful in a predictable way.  But getting sober is the start for getting better sleep.  When you start alcohol rehab, you give your body a chance to live without the damaging effects of alcohol.  It’s a place learn about good sleep habits and a good sleeping environment.  Alcoholics wanting better sleep can get a good start at alcohol rehab.

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