Alcoholism Recovery And The BAR Cycle

Alcoholism is a serious condition that can lead to loss of employment, family, health...even life. There are different beliefs as to the causes of alcohol addiction...genetic, allergy, mental or behavioral. While professional diagnosis and treatment are often important, you can do a lot to help yourself, gain control and live in recovery. This article will discuss the nature of alcoholism, traditional treatment and self-help using the BAR Cycle.

Alcoholism-Disease And Addiction: This condition usually involves a low self-esteem described as "self-loathing." An alcoholic sees the physical stimulation of alcohol as a solution to their low self-esteem, to help in social situations, to provide "courage" or to get over stress from work or relationship problems. Drinking does, in fact, temporarily dull the feelings, so it seems to be of some use. Since it's temporary, we return to the self-loathing, which has been increased because of our needing alcohol just to live.

Alcoholism can have physical "causes" or, at least contributing factors. Genetics, diabetes and allergy are three that are commonly discussed. Other popular "causes" are parental example, peer pressure, and society. None of these "causes" have been proven to actually cause alcoholism, because many have endured most or all of these conditions without becoming an addict. Many others have become alcoholic with no evidence of any of them. Regardless of the cause, Alcoholism has proven to be treatable or controllable, though not easily so.

Traditional Alcoholism Treatment: Alcoholics with severe addictions often check themselves in to treatment centers, where medicines are combined with individual and group psychological therapy. Some of these centers use the AA's 12 steps in addition to other therapy. AA has been the most effective system in the history of alcoholism treatment...so much so that the 12 steps have been copied for help with most other addictions. Part of what makes AA powerful is that the 12 steps work to eliminate causes of self-loathing, while building a positive self-esteem.

The BAR Cycle And Alcoholism Self-help: The BAR Cycle of human motivation describes a process to control human behavior, especially addictive behavior. Instead of repeating that description here, we're going to jump right into how the cycle can be used to help control Alcoholism. The key is the "belief " part of the cycle...that self-loathing/self-esteem process. Since self-loathing is at the root of alcoholism, we need to change our belief from self-loathing to self-confidence. Like any addiction, our approach toward changing our belief has to be both general (self-esteem) and specific (not drinking).

With self-image, all the steps described in the BAR Cycle article apply, including self-talk, positive attitude, elimination of negative attitudes, positive behaviors, etc. All of these improve how we see ourselves so, over time, we'll feel self-confident without feeling compelled to drink.

With drinking, we apply the BAR Cycle to specifically reprogram ourselves into other activities that will form positive habits. Many do this with AA meetings, volunteer work, involvement in church, etc. The positive feedback received from going day-by-day without drinking and from meetings and volunteer work begin to replace self-loathing with a positive self-esteem.

For some of us who suffer severe alcoholism, professional treatment is a requirement. The self-help steps in the BAR Cycle can help us eliminate the root cause of the addiction and permanently change how we see ourselves. You can move from self-loathing to self-loving in a matter of months.