Counselling Central

Alcoholism is a progressive illness that cannot be ‘cured’ in the traditional sense of the word. According to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 33,000 people die each year in the UK due to alcohol-related incidents or associated health problems. After smoking, alcoholism kills more people in the UK than any other drug. One adult in 13 is dependant on drink. Alcohol is involved in 15% of road accidents, 26% of drownings, and 36% of death in fires and a quarter of accidents at work are drink-related.

Recent studies in the United States (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) have suggested that motivation is the key to beating alcoholism, and a variety of options can help if drinkers are determined to quit and if they regularly meet with a health professional for guidance. This suggests that the first step is to actually acknowledge a problem exists, which for many is a big hurdle. But why should this be the case? We have to remember that alcohol is possibly as dangerous to society as cocaine, or other recreational drugs. The difference is that alcohol is legal, taxable and the accepted and time honoured drug of choice. There is also the social stigma attached to admitting that you have an alcohol abuse problem.

Once that first step has been taken some of the options include drugs, such as Antabuse, Campral and naltrexone, counselling and medical help. The research discovered that the most effective treatment was a combination of all three.

For some it is also helpful to meet other people with an alcohol abuse problem. “Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism”. Their program of personal recovery is contained in Twelve Steps:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

In the UK you can find AA’s contact details in the phone book, or write to them at Alcoholics Anonymous, PO Box 1, 10 Toft Green, York YO1 7ND. Tel. 01904 644026. In the United States and Canada www.aa.org