The Stigmas Of Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a chronic illness that gets a lot of stigma on a daily basis. Many people do not understand the illness and that it is a disease. They see it as a burden and a problem. If someone decides to not drink when they go out the person automatically thinks that the person is a recovering alcoholic. Many of the nurses that I work with have an exasperated behavior towards alcoholics, these patients are not the ones they want to care for and seem irritated to have to deal with these type of patients. I was able to sit down with a recovering alcoholic to learn about some of the stigma he experienced during his drinking years. The person I interviewed Don started drinking around the age of 26 and in 2008 his drinking became much worse which …show more content…
The first one that he lost ended up leading to an increase in his drinking. He also lost his license due to his drinking and that led to the loss of his second job. He lost his third job because he would show up to work drunk, one time he managed to pass out in the bushes at his job. These losses did not benefit him to try to become sober. These losses led him to continue his drinking. He felt worthless and hurt with each job loss. These horrible things happening to him still did not allow him to understand his need to stop. He spent the majority of his time and money on his drinking that he missed out on going over to Sweden to see his family, even missing his father’s funeral when he …show more content…
I would complain and not want to help those that came in frequently and often. After going through the issues with my father and talking with him about what it was like for him while drinking I have opened myself up. I have more compassion, even for those that come in frequently, and I make sure I care for them as I would want someone to have taken care of my father. Through all of this the one thing that I have come to realized is that if you want to get sober you have to want it for yourself more than anything else. You can’t do it for another person, it will not work. Another thing that I use quite often is the thing that works best for my father and what he has found out through alcoholic anonymous, find a good alcoholic anonymous group and make sure you continuously go. He has found out by others that if you stop going your odds of going back to drinking are increased. I use this with each patient I discharge to a rehab facility for