Due to the compulsive nature of alcoholism, a person addicted very often needs rehab in order to get sober.  Furthermore, many alcoholics have to be persuaded by those who love them that they need to seek treatment. Part of the package of alcoholism, unfortunately, is denial.

This is so true that there are a variety of assessment forms and questionnaires that can be used to determine an alcohol addict’s denial rating. This is an important factor in the alcoholism recovery process. After all, if a person never stops denying his or her alcohol problem, it could be possible to give the appearance of participating in an alcohol rehab but never make any real progress. On the morning they are scheduled to be discharged from a typical alcohol rehab center, an alcoholic could be (and sometimes is) planning how and where to get liquor which they get out.

One of these questionnaires asks the alcoholic to rate the applicability of such statements as:

“I have already changed my drinking, and I am looking for ways to keep from slipping back to my old pattern “

“I was drinking too much at one time, but”

“I’ve managed to change my drinking”

“I have serious problems with drinking”

“Sometimes I wonder if my drinking is hurting other people.”

This test can be easily faked, making the alcoholic look as if they have no problems.  An addict  will simply tell people what they want to hear, so they can return to their alcohol.

Without making it around the denial barrier, by just adopting that policy of telling people what they want to hear, an alcoholic can make it through some types of alcohol rehab with their alcoholism intact.

For Some Interventions Start the Process

When a family is unable to get the alcohol addict to agree to go to rehab facility, many families will bring in an interventionist. An interventionist is a person who is experienced in the field of drug and alcohol addiction. He or she enables the alcoholic to decide to get treatment by helping them work through the difficult process of acknowledging the problem and deciding to get help. Many interventionists have themselves had substance abuse problems and so know exactly what they are talking about. This quality makes many of them valuable to the addict. They are talking the alcoholic’s language. They know the repercussions of not getting help, and they can put it all in terms the alcoholic can understand. Many alcoholics need help to develop willingness to start alcohol rehab.

Once the Alcoholic is in Rehab

An alcoholic who refuses to admit a problem or who refuses to enter treatment has lost his or her perception of the damage being done by alcohol. Drugs and alcohol both create a sort of blindness to pain, to destruction, and even to the good in someone’s attempt to help.

A good interventionist can break through this blindness and help the alcohol addict prepare himself or herself to the process of change that should take place in any effective rehabilitation program. For an alcohol rehab to create sobriety, it will need to work to bring real changes in the alcohol addict.

The Narconon Arrowhead drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Canadian,Oklahomaunderstands addiction and has built a program that works with the natural addiction healing process. With every phase of the Narconon recovery program, as addicted person can gradually gain back their ability to see – a first, to see the harm they have done. Not comfortable, but a phase in their recovery and a key step in regaining self respect. Next, they might regain the ability to see the beauty in life, in their children, family or just a sunny day.

After that, as they work their way through the Life Skills training portion of the Narconon recovery program, they can perceive their own goodness and learn to trust themselves again.

It is a step by step process that is not completed overnight nor in the 30 days allowed by many alcohol rehabs and insurance companies. It takes longer than that to make the trip from denial all the way to self-trust and knowledge of how to stay alcohol-free despite life’s challenges.

But it is a journey more valuable to an alcohol addict than any other. Given that those who graduate from Narconon alcohol rehab programs have a 70 percent recovery rate, an alcoholic who chooses the Narconon program has an excellent chance of reclaiming his or her life again, and of building a productive, sober future.

References:

http://casaa.unm.edu/inst/SOCRATESv8.pdf

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2069&ChapterID=58