One of the strategies for substance abuse treatment and overcoming alcoholism is alcohol counseling.  Many times this will come up as the first line of defense when someone is in the early stages of recognizing their own addiction.  A drinking problem has perhaps escalated into more of a dependency, and some consequences may have set in.  At this point, friends, family, or maybe the doctor has suggested that the person try some counseling sessions to see if that might help.

In some cases this may be worthwhile.  This would be especially true if the person has a mere drinking problem, but is not quite over the edge into full blown alcoholism at this point.  Counseling may indeed be the best solution for someone who wants to cut back or learn to control their drinking.

But for the real alcoholic, for someone who is spiraling out of control with their drinking, alcoholic counseling is probably not the best choice of treatment.  In fact, it will probably just delay any real solution and allow the person to continue drinking without any significant changes.

If the person is a true alcoholic, then they will probably love the idea of counseling once they try it.  It is actually quite easy for a drunk to keep up this sort of charade.  You go see the therapist maybe once a week or so, and you continue to drink alcohol but of course you are “making a serious effort to cut back.”  For the true alcoholic, this is just more fun and games, with no real effort being made to seriously reduce their drinking.  Even if they do reduce their consumption for a while, it will shoot right back up and continue to be a roller coaster of sorts.

Drug and alcohol counseling does not inspire real change for someone who is truly addicted, and it should not be used in place of more intensive treatments, such as inpatient rehab.  If an alcoholic is serious about trying to stop drinking, and if every attempt that they have made has failed them, then they should be willing to go to an inpatient rehab in order to change their life.  Counseling can always be continued when they are done with rehab and are now sober.  Then they can actually use the counseling to inspire real growth and real changes in their life, instead of just using it as a mask for the idea that they are cutting down on their drinking or something.

Counseling is a sham unless they are already sober.