May 6, 2021 By: yunews
By Timothy B. Conley, Ph.D., LCSW
Certified Addiction Specialist
(NOTE: Facts and information for this article were taken directly from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Alcohol Alert # 53, July 2001)
According to studies published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), damage to the brain from drinking is a common and potentially severe consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol use. The ability to think, remember and reason, referred to as 鈥渃ognitive functioning,鈥 is adversely affected by even mild-to-moderate drinking. A smaller though significant number of heavy drinkers may develop devastating, irreversible brain-damage, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a disorder characterized by the inability to remember new information for more than a brief period.
In this article, the obstacles to recovery from alcoholism for those suffering cognitive impairment will be explored and discussed. Some strategies for coping, which have been used by others successfully, will be presented.
Research studies have found that impaired cognition is often more severe during the first weeks of abstinence, making it difficult for some with alcohol use disorders to get their recovery off the ground and benefit from treatment activities.
Most treatment programs鈥攊npatient or outpatient鈥攔ely heavily on psychological education (called 鈥減sycho-ed鈥 for short) as a treatment strategy. But what is the point if the alcoholic is unable to recall what they are being taught? It can take from several months to a year before the brain is fully recovered from its assault by alcohol; what is the recovering person to do in the meantime?
A client I will call Roland came to me for alcoholism treatment with a personal history marked by multiyear periods of abstinence and relapse. He had just completed two weeks of inpatient treatment following a three-year relapse that had included continuous as well as binge drinking.
When I asked him how his treatment had gone, he replied sarcastically, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know鈥攜ou would have to ask them.鈥 Something in my experience told me he was not just being flip. When queried specifically about what treatment films he had seen, what the name of his counselor was and who else he was in treatment with, he drew blanks. He expressed concern about this, saying, 鈥淚 know I have lost a lot off the ball this time out鈥擨 can鈥檛 remember crap.鈥 He also indicated that he remembered more from the two treatment programs he attended over five years ago than about the one he was just in. This baffled him.
I was able to explain to him the difference between long-term memory and recent memory, though I knew too that this information would most likely need to be repeated. His big problem was remembering new information.
So, for treatment purposes, we started with what he already knew: slogans from Alcoholics Anonymous, the first three steps and even some meeting locations near where he lived. I knew that as time goes by, cognitive functioning often improves and that eventually he may be able to make better use of the information presented to him in individual and group therapy, educational programs, and 12-step programs.
Fortunately, I was seeing him in an Employee Assistance Program office at his work location, so finding the office and keeping appointments could be ensured. It has been more of a challenge when outpatient participants forget their appointment time, lose the card or cannot find the office.
