Alcoholism Treatment in Europe

In Europe, people do not do the total abstinence from drinking thing like we do in the United States. Our treatment programs focus on kicking alcohol permanently. In the United States, alcoholism is only tackled with the premise that total abstinence must be maintained. European health authorities are limited with the scope they treat the concept of controlled drinking with. However, there is a persistent idea that problem drinkers as well as full-blown alcoholics can learn to limit their consumption, rather than abstain permanently for life. Maintaining sobriety is hard for this reason, because many times, the abstainer faces temptation.

Europeans have changed the outlook on drinking habits since the 1980s. In some European countries such as Spain, alcoholism is treated with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), holistic therapy, and more traditional 12-step interventions. Some people believe in the power of a higher power found in 12-step programs. You give your addiction to a source that can help you face it. This doesn’t always work for those who would prefer controlled drinking as a better approach to learn to manage their drinking habits. Alcohol is pervasive in all of Europe, everywhere you go, especially in Spain. Drinking less may be a more viable option to others.

Alcohol abuse is a complex problem that is no easy task to address, particularly when it is used as self-medication in order to cope with other problems. Some patients would rather moderate their drinking instead of quitting it entirely. Total abstinence can be hard to maintain in a culture where alcohol is pervasive like in most modern European countries. In the United States, we are into total abstinence while in European countries, they try to teach the drinker to control it better. More research has been done on controlled drinking, which means that the drinker reduces his drinking habit to a moderate level.

In Europe, drinking in a moderate way is part of the treatment of alcoholism. Some people just can’t conceive of cutting alcohol altogether. They need the alcohol still as a social function or a way to relax. Some people have a limited understanding that they drink too much. Abstinence is too overwhelming for those types of people. Controlled drinking is therefore more advantageous to those who feel they can reduce their drinking visibly. If alcoholics use a therapist to learn how to moderate their drinking, then they find that some can lower their drinking tendencies.

Another technique used by therapists to control alcohol consumption is called behavioral self-control training (BSCT), which teaches the drinker how to monitor their addiction urges, how to set goals, how to properly refuse alcohol in the context of an enabler trying to get them to drink more than they want, and in particular how to manage what triggers excessive alcohol consumption. Mild to moderate drinkers can thus recover on their own given they take the time to properly study their situation, learning to observe how much they drink. Guided self-change therapy is another form of therapy where the drinker learns once again, how to reduce their drinking. Some studies suggest that drinking can be reduced by 50 percent.

12-step programs however, such as Alcoholics Anonymous believe in total abstinence is necessary since alcoholism is a destructive illness that can cause serious car accidents. Alcoholism is seen as a medical condition that destroys lives, and can break up a marriage. Controlled drinking is researched in Britain, Norway, and Denmark as well as Canada. Germany is a fluke as far as controlled drinking is concerned, if only because Germany believes in American style abstinence. There are many ways to stop drinking or reduce drinking but it is up to an individual to decide what route is the best one for them.

Works Cited:

https://www.addiction.com/6611/controlled-drinking-recovery-approach/

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/22/science/controlled-drinking-gains-as-a-treatment-in-europe.html?pagewanted=all

https://www.rehab4alcoholism.com/areas/alcohol-rehab-spain