Javier Álvarez Bermúdez

The level of well-being in families attending al-anon groups and its effect on the attention of their alcohol dependent relatives

The suffering of a chronic disease such as alcohol dependence does not only affect the person who carries it, but also the overall family.1 The suffering experienced by the principal relative (wife, mother, sister, and daughter) of the alcohol ́s dependent can be identified and perceived by him. It is possible that initially he denies or hides the existence of the problem for not knowing how to front facing the feelings of fear, guilt, shame, resentment and contempt that the behavior of the dependent family member generates in them because of their form of consumption.2,3 In the relationship of the dependent person with his family, there is a continuum of affective feelings that can go from positive to negative, which translates into stress, moral and emotional suffering, and even the destruction of relationships and communication within the family nucleus.2,4–7 In these families, the alcohol dependence of their family member symbolizes the unknown, the ambiguous, the dangerous, the suffering, the guilt, the chaos, the anxiety and the stress.7,8 This led us to conduct a study with the purpose of knowing the level of well-being9 in relatives of alcohol dependents attending Al-Anon groups and the effects on the attention of their alcohol dependents relatives. The design of the study was with a qualitative approach, the interpretative framework used was the symbolic interactionism10–12 and the method used was of the Grounded Theory.13,14