Nature of the Disease
 
Alcoholism/chemical dependency is a disease that is:
  • Primary
  • Progressive
  • Chronic
  • Fatal
In the later stages of the disease the person is incapable of the spontaneous insight needed to seek remedial care, largely due to:
  • Blackouts
  • Repression
  • Euphoric Recall
  • Their combined delusional thought processes
Those living with chemically dependent persons often become emotionally distressed to the point where they:
  • Enable the addiction to continue despite best intentions
  • Attempt to manipulate the situation to make it "go away"
  • Show similar symptoms
  • May require remedial care
Society in general has historically enabled the disease process to continue by viewing it as:
  • A moral issue
  • A matter of willpower
  • Something that will "go away" on its own
 Intervention can remediate the condition on two levels.

Level 1 — Through an educational therapeutic process the concerned others can identify their misunderstandings of the disease process. They can then see it and their own behaviors for what they are and commit themselves to no longer protecting the addicted individuals from the consequences of his/her behavior.

Level 2 — The addicted person can be helped to see the love of those around his/her addictive behavior, and thus accept treatment as an appropriate solution.

This disease is successfully treatable with the concurrent approaches to:
  • Attend to physical complications
  • Reduce the symptoms of mental mismanagement
  • Expunge the emotional distress
  • Rebuild family communications
  • Establish a workable spiritual connection




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