Avoid Having Alcohol in the Home

When you live with an alcoholic in your life, you have to change the way you live. You have to change the way you keep your house stocked with beverages. You have to realize that having alcohol in the home is a thing of the past. An alcoholic does not care where the drink comes from as long as they can drink it. This is hard to understand for many people. If you do not have a drinking problem, but enjoy a drink occasionally, you will have to make some changes. The sad thing is that you may have to be the one to hide the alcohol.

If you drink, you have to use good judgment. You have to realize that living with an alcoholic and drinking yourself can make for some intense moments. It may make you feel superior and able to say things that you normally would not. This could create some arguments and even some abusive behavioral on both parts. If you do drink, it should be on moderation and make sure that you do not need to discuss anything with your spouse or partner when you are drinking.

Keep alcohol out of sight if you live with an alcoholic in your life. This is important, but it is also necessary. Many alcoholics will hide their empties so that you do not know that they are drinking, but now you will have to be the one hiding the alcohol if you want to keep it in the house. This now becomes a really bad living situation. Unfortunately, if you want alcohol in the house for yourself or for when guests stop over, you will have to keep it out of sight.

A lock on the liquor cabinet will not deter the alcoholic in you life. If the person knows that there is alcohol in the house, even if you use a lock and key to keep them out, they will find a way. This is sad because you want to feel safe and secure in your home, but the problem is already inside. You have to change the way you live when you live with an alcoholic. There is no easy way to keep alcoholic beverages in the house where an alcoholic lives.

If you have alcohol in the house, be prepared to have it disappear quickly. This is a problem for anyone that keeps alcohol in the house. Just because Aunt Sally brought it over for when she visits will not mean a thing. The alcoholic that needs a drink does not care whose alcohol it is but only that it is there and they need it. This can cause more problems when Aunt Sally comes for a visit and the alcohol is gone. You have to explain and tell the truth instead of covering it up.

Hiding alcohol is not the answer, but unfortunately, it is the only way you can keep alcohol in the house if you do. Sometimes you will feel like this is not worth it and get discouraged. This is the time you need to talk to someone. Living with an alcoholic that seeks and finds the alcohol to drink has a problem and most counselors will tell you not to keep alcohol in the house at all. This is not what you want to hear, but short of sleeping with the alcohol next to your bed, this may be the only way to stop the alcoholic from drinking what is not theirs.

You may need to have an alcohol free home to deter drinking at home. This is not hard to do if you do not want a cocktail now and then. If you are just a casual drinker and only want a few cocktails, you will have to decide what is more important. This is hard, but then again, living with an alcoholic is hard most of the time. There is no easy way to live with a person that has a drinking problem. You have to make sacrifices in most cases to make things work.

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Join Al-Anon When You Live With an Alcoholic

Living with an alcoholic can be trying and unnerving, but you can join a group for support. Al-non is a great help to family members of the alcoholic. There are people in the group that are in the same situations as you are and they are there for support. Everyone supports each other. In some cases, you find out that some of the members have the exact same problems as you do. You learn how they are handling their loved one. They can offer guidance and advice that everyone can use if they live with an alcoholic. This is important to survive.

Guest speakers make appearances at Al-Anon group meetings. Family members and even alcohol counselor take time to visit the Al-Anon meetings to discuss issues that the group has with anything. They can explain things to you that may help you understand why this is happening to you. They are supportive and will not tell you that this is not about you. They know this is about you as well as the alcoholic. They tell stories and share everything they know about the disease with the group. They can help you cope with living with someone you love that has a drinking problem.

Survivors of alcohol disease speak to you. This can be a sad group meeting. Sometimes life does not work out the way you want it to, no matter how hard you try. Survivors of alcoholism tell you there stories. They share with you stories about their families and how they hurt their families and how they feel now. You will here stories about how they loss their families because of the disease. It can be a saddening story, but it helps you understand. They are honest and speak the truth to you. This is something that you might not be used to hearing from the alcoholic in your life.

You learn from each other. When you join Al-Anon, you have the opportunity to talk about your life living with a person that drinks too much. You can hear others talk about things that happen in their lives. This lets you know that you are not alone. Each person in the group has a chance to talk if they want. You are not pressured to talk, but the option is always there. At first, you might just listen, but then you will want to tell your story and people will listen. It will not be like talking to the alcoholic that never hears you.

Support groups are the only way to make it. If you try to go it alone, you can create your own health issues. Al-Anon is confidential and no one is going to say anything outside of the group. You can ask for help. You need help. You cannot live with an alcoholic without support. It is not healthy for yourself or any children you may have. You need to hear what others do to survive an alcoholic friend or family member. You are not alone and you have to remember that.

You learn how to handle the alcoholic. Some people that drink can become violent or disruptive. You need to have an outlet and Al-Anon gives you that outlet. You can talk about the problems and ask others for ways to handle the situation. You can try to go without a group to help you, but if you have nowhere to vent, you maybe inclined to vent to the alcoholic, which could aggravate any already bad situation. The group can help you. They can make suggestions that might help you.

If you are living with an alcoholic, you need some support that cannot come from family and friends. You need a group such as Al-Anon, where everyone there is has a friend or family member that is just like yours. They can offer you support and advice, which will be positive and not negative. The group has guest speakers that might even include reformed alcoholics and their families. This is where you hear about the other side of the spectrum. You hear how an alcoholic feels after he or she has received help and quit drinking. You hear what their families have to say. This helps you.

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