Alcohol addiction programs normally refer to a wide range of therapeutic and clinical programs used by a rehab or a treatment center to address a persons alcoholism or help someone deal with an addiction to alcohol.
Alcohol addiction programs as such, are normally residential in a rehab or a treatment center, but there are also a wide range of other options which fall under this term which can be either day programmes, some type of outreach programs or a more traditional model such as meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Alcohol addiction programs that are offered by a rehab or a treatment center are normally in-patient residential programs. A person will normally enter a rehab for a fixed period of time, quite often about a month is normal, and in that time begin addressing the nature of that alcoholism.
The nature of all addiction and alcohol addiction programs can vary considerably depending upon the nature of the rehab or treatment center. An alcohol addiction program that is likely to be effective will be rooted in the understanding that alcoholism is an illness, and that an alcoholic is a person as such suffers from that illness.
The idea of alcoholism as an illness is one that many people understand and accept, even if there are differences and misconceptions about the nature of the illness. The sense of an alcoholic being an ill person is one that does register with many people, even if they do not understand the illness, they are able to sense that an alcoholic is in some way acting against their own best interests.
An alcohol addiction program will need to address what is known as step one in the 12 step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Step one of the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous addresses the issue of acceptance of a person’s powerlessness or not over their own drinking and unmanageability of their life.
It is crucial to understanding the nature of alcoholism as an illness to understand that an alcoholic in general terms, needs to protect alcohol and does so in the face of the chaos and horror that their life becomes as a result of their drinking.
An alcoholic will know in one sense, what alcohol is doing to them, because they are living the life that is the consequence of the drinking.
An alcohol addiction program must understand the denial of an alcoholic is primarily a protective function, designed to keep the alcoholic feeling safe, and designed to help keep the alcoholic from having to acknowledge and face the reality of their life.
An alcohol addiction program will hopefully do more than simply begin the process of addressing a persons acceptance or not of that alcoholism.
The nature of an alcohol addiction program means that it needs to both challenge and alcoholic about their drinking and their lives in general, but to do it in such a way that the alcoholic does not feel threatened.
This need for an alcoholic to feel safe is crucial for the process of recovery to begin and take place. An alcohol addiction program needs to be focused on helping an alcoholic to understand the complexity of the illness and to be able to plant a seed of recovery that the alcoholic can grasp.
This can be quite a difficult challenge for the rehab, and for the nature of the addiction program.
An alcohol addiction program that is run as a day programme or outreach programme is likely to offer a similar approach in some ways to a residential program. The main difference in one sense, will be that the alcoholic will continue in some senses in their normal life on a day-to-day basis whilst undertaking the program that is being offered.
This has some advantages in terms of integrating the alcohol addiction program into their normal way of life, but also has the disadvantage that it exposes alcoholic to the same pressures that were there also were drinking, both internally and externally.