Helping alcoholics is a notoriously difficult thing to do. Perhaps the best we can do is offer a system of recovery that works for them and encourage them to find out what that system is. Part of the problem with traditional recovery is that it usually seeks to fit the alcoholic into the program instead of fitting a program to the alcoholic. This is a problem and based on existing recovery rates you can be sure that this method of treatment doesn’t really work all that well. Relapse rates are miserably low with seemingly no answer in sight for the struggling alcoholic. The solution to this is in customization. It is ridiculous to think that there is only one way to help an alcoholic, or that there is only one program or one method of help that can work for everyone. This is just silly. Different alcoholics have found recovery over the years through using different programs and different techniques. No one solution will work for everyone. This is an obvious truth to anyone who has stepped back and looked at the big picture. Unfortunately, many people do not consider this idea and insist that there is only one solution for alcoholism. Usually this points to 12 step programs such as AA and NA that have essentially become what we refer to as “traditional recovery.” These solutions are widespread and, while helpful, don’t really produce very good success rates. For the majority of alcoholics, offering them only one solution of AA is like trying to push a square peg into a round hole. It is just a poor fit for some people and they would actually do much better with an alternative program of recovery. In these cases, however, we almost always fault the individual instead of the recovery program, and say that “they just don’t want recovery bad enough” or they would certainly be able to make this simple 12 step program work for themselves. This is an unfair and arrogant attitude that prevents people from making real growth in recovery. So what is the solution? For some the solution will be in the customization of a recovery program to their own unique life. Sometimes this is best accomplished through sponsorship or with a life coach.

Original Source of Helping Alcoholics