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ALCOHOLISM – THE FAMILY ILLNESS

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Contributor / 2012-06-10 15:20:21

The Al-Anon Family Groups have one purpose – to help families, relatives and friends whose lives have been affected by someone else’s drinking.

If you are concerned with someone else’s drinking or you grew up with a problem drinker Al-Anon is for you. If your alcoholic is in recovery or a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and is sober - Al-Anon can still help, as with sobriety there still can be problems. Al-Anon helps us grasp the idea that alcoholism is a disease –physical, emotional and spiritual. We learn that we did not cause the alcoholic to drink, we cannot control the drinking nor can we cure the alcoholic - what we can do through Al-Anon is find support and a way to lead our lives.

Compulsive drinking affects the drinker – it affects the drinker’s relationships – it affects our lives. These special relationships in which a person is really close to an alcoholic can be the ones affected the most – the people who care are the ones who get caught up in the behavioural problems of another person. They react to an alcoholic’s behaviour. They see that the drinking is spiralling out of control and they try to control it. They are ashamed of the public scenes, the gossip, the unpaid bills and in private they try to handle it and hold everything together.

At an Al-Anon Family Group meeting you will no longer be alone – you will find a warm and genuine welcome from those who understand. Only a person who has lived with an alcoholic or the effects of alcoholism can truly understand the mental anguish, the loneliness, the uncertainty and despair that goes with it – in Al-Anon meetings you will be able to talk to people who understand. Al-Anon is an anonymous fellowship – the identities and everything heard or spoken in any Al-Anon meeting is confidential.

For more information about Al-Anon on the Orihuela Costa phone 692799318 between 9am and 9pm or please visit our Open Al-Anon meeting on June 24th, 1pm at Rocajuna – a solution is waiting there for you.