How can a person really help a struggling alcoholic to get well? Historically, recovery programs have attempted to answer this question but without a lot of success at it. You may have pushed someone in your life towards recovery without much success. If it has come to this point then perhaps you should consider the best way to help alcoholics.

Part of the problem is that existing recovery programs lack customization. They are generic programs that are intended to help everyone but turn out to not really benefit anyone because they are not customized at all. For example, the twelve step fellowships that are so common these days have essentially remained the same for years and years.

When someone needs help with addiction or alcoholism, we typically send them to a traditional recovery program such as AA or NA. When this does not give us great success rates, we often will fault the individual instead of the program itself, citing excuses such as “the person just did not want to get sober”.” These types of excuses point to a failing in our quest for better recovery and we can do better then just blaming the failed alcoholic. I would suggest:

1) Push alcoholics to use treatment for early recovery. This is critical because early recovery is very trying and it can be hard for the alcoholic to get even a small amount of clean time in some cases.” In a controlled environment it is much safer and easier to get started on sobriety.

2) Push alcoholics to create a new life for themselves. This is critical as just stopping the booze will not really help much. When a true alcoholic consumes booze they do it with enthusiasm and so it turns into a driving force in their life. In traditional recovery, the typical drunk has to find new meaning for their life or they will slide back into the chaos and desperation of drinking some day.

3) Push alcoholics to grow holistically. If you can convince someone to make progress in one area of their life, this is decent. But if you can convince them to grow in several areas of their life, this is even better. Holistic growth means that they are treating the alcoholism as a whole, not just as a spiritual malady (as some programs treat it).