Topic: What Keeps Alcoholics and Addicts From Getting Help

A primary enabler is someone whose well-established pattern of enabling permits the alcoholic or addict to continue drinking or drug use.

Even if such arguments have stymied you for decades, it’s quite possible, with a little coaching, to deal with them effectively in future.

We can’t control the alcoholic/ addict, but we’re not powerless. Some things we can do (and stop doing) to help them listen to something besides the addiction…

I recall someone telling me he could be patient as long as he knew that eventually he’d get what he wanted. Well, it’s easy to be patient then. The trick is to have patience when you don’t know the outcome.

Here we arrive at the core of stigma: the alleged inferiority of the person with alcoholism based on weakness of will. But alcoholic people aren’t weak-willed; if they were, it would be much easier to convince them to seek help.

Alcoholism is stigmatized. So is drug addiction. So is mental illness. And that’s an important obstacle to recovery.