What does an addict/alcoholic look like?

Are you wondering if you might have a problem with drink or drugs? Are you considering that you can’t be an alcoholic or addict, because you do not look like one and your circumstances don’t suggest you are? Many people are under the misconception that in order to be an alcoholic or an addict, you either have to live on the streets and sleep rough. You have to have lost everything.

There is no stereotype of an addict/alcoholic

This is so far from the truth, and means that a lot of people have no real concept of the nature of addiction. Therefore, they fail to spot it when it is staring them in the face. I remember my mother saying that while she would give to charity, she could not give to the beggars on the street because they would only spend the money on drink or drugs. After all, she’d say, they put themselves there – they weren’t born there.

‘Addiction can affect anyone’

She is now the mother of two recovering alcoholics, and she saw us what alcoholism did to her two children. Neither my brother nor I ended up on the streets, and neither of us lost everything. But my mother now understands hat addiction can affect anyone. If we had not had the love and support of our family, and the help we needed to get well, that could have been a different story.

So the conventional image of an alcoholic or addict is, at times,  incorrect. Someone with the illness can come from any background. This includes all social classes, all levels of education, can have all sorts of jobs and professions and be of any race or religion. Some will retain their jobs, families, friends and economic status at the height of their addiction; others will lose everything.

So what do they need to do? To stop drinking or using drugs forever. This means stop, and not controlled drinking or using a less powerful drug. However, even this in itself will not be enough. Addiction is an illness of body, mind and spirit. It is not just about the alcohol and drugs, it is about the person. Lots of alcoholics and addicts can give up drink and drugs but can’t stay stopped if they do not sort out the mental side of the illness. Many drink or use because they are spiritually not complete.

After a detox, an addict is likely to be clinging on by their fingertips to sobriety. This is sometimes called a ‘dry drunk’ –someone who no longer drinks or uses but has all the unhappiness and frustrations with life that they had before they stopped.

This is where the Twelve Step Programme comes in. It helps us to understand ourselves and to live fulfilled and complete lives without our drink or drugs.

If you or someone you care about needs help for an addiction problem, call 01462 851 414 for help and advice and treatment options.