The term altered attitudes is often used partly as a play on the term Alcoholics Anonymous
Both phrases use the same initials, and the term altered attitudes is often used at meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous as shorthand for the fact that people need to change their attitudes in order to stay sober and live with some degree of serenity.
A rehab/treatment center will begin this process hopefully of getting people to realise that how they feel about themselves and their lives is in part about what has happened to them, and in part about how they have reacted in order to have dealt with what has happened to them.
Both these approaches are part of a reality of life that needs to be owned.
When someone is admitted to a rehab/treatment center there’s often a considerable resentment that the have ended up there. A rehab is not considered a place, with the exception of some celebrities, where people want to end up.
It is in itself an admission that their life has reached some stage where they are not able to carry on with the process of how they have been living that life.
Spending time as an inpatient in a rehab/treatment center normally gives people an opportunity to reassess their life in some way in a safe and secure environment, without the pressures of the life that existed before they went into a rehab, including both family and work.
It is probably a fair generalisation to say that the customary attitude of an alcoholic to alcohol is an attitude of wanting to protect their need to drink, and of trying to keep people away from them who they believe are trying to stop them drinking.
The worse their alcoholism gets, the more likely they are to want to protect alcohol and try and convince other people that they do not have a problem with it or that they are alcoholics.
This is a term that is commonly referred to as denial, both in a rehab and in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.
It is important to realise that the reality of a problem especially the denial of someone’s alcoholism is a protective mechanism, and is designed to keep the person and the alcohol safe rather than simply being delusional.
It is quite possible that the person has become delusional in the process of defending alcohol and their life as an alcoholic, and this is an issue that would need to be addressed in a rehab when admitted.