Living With A High Functioning Alcoholic Alcohol Abuse & Addiction

High functioning alcoholism is becoming increasingly more common in current times, especially due to the current pandemic. To make matters more complex, living with a high functioning alcoholic may even feel normal among some households. After all, those battling with an AUD can still carry on throughout the day reasonably well. Our attorneys provide confidential legal guidance on how to best move your divorce forward.

They also tend to hide their excessive consumption by drinking alone or sneaking alcohol before or after a social event, and disguising or excusing the odor of alcohol on their breath. Contacting a professional interventionist or other addiction professionals https://ecosoberhouse.com/ could provide you with some insight and feedback on these questions. When you read through the questions of these assessment instruments, you will see how interested they are in determining behavior as well as the effects of consumption.

How Do You Prove Alcoholism in Court?

Due to how acceptable social and recreational drinking is, excessive alcohol use may be difficult to identify. This is why focusing on behaviors provides much better insight than trying to watch for excessive consumption. Even binge drinking or alcohol warning signs may be missed or be perceived as moderate or tolerable.

That stress, inevitably, bleeds into relationships, which can cause cracks and fissures that will rupture if not addressed in a healthy way. Fights over the alcohol abuse may ensue; if the alcoholic loses control when they are drunk, there is an increased risk of domestic violence. It can also cause them to suffer serious health problems if they don’t get treatment. Often, a spouse who is married to an alcoholic is left to pick up the pieces after the afflicted person disregards the consequences of his or her actions and increasingly seeks to escape the stress of day-to-day life through drinking. However, there are some instances when a marital separation seems like the appropriate action to take. One reason why many marriages end in divorce is because of alcoholism.

Alcoholism and Divorce

Arguments between you and your spouse may start to become physical, even if they were not before. Often, a person’s proximity to addiction may make them more prone to emotional desensitization and may create high functioning alcoholic scenarios where loved ones are downplaying problematic behavior or being outright dismissive altogether. Friends and family can provide an outside perspective to a potentially dangerous situation.

To better understand this form of alcohol abuse, we must first take a look at the definition of high-functioning alcoholic. Then he comes home when the sun comes up, after you’ve called him repeatedly with no answer, a few hours before work starts, and you know you’re right. He may not be physically or mentally abusive or falling-down shit-faced all the time, but he’s definitely an alcoholic.

The Right Treatment Facility

His ability to wreak financial and psychological havoc on my family was profound, despite their separation. Any conversation with an HFA about his or her drinking should occur when the alcoholic is NOT under the influence of alcohol and can often be most effective when the HFA is hungover and possibly feeling guilt or remorse. It is important to express to an HFA how his or her drinking is negatively affecting you (emotionally, spiritually, physically) and how you perceive it is harming others as well (friends, children). In order to prevent an HFA from getting overly defensive, you can place the emphasis on your feelings and concerns—instead of stating how you think he or she should be living or acting.

Those who suffer from ongoing alcohol abuse may sometimes be quite functional in life’s other aspects. For the spouse who is divorcing an alcoholic, there is often an emotional tug of war between the desire to have the children see the other parent and the knowledge that the alcohol abusing parent may be a danger to the children. We are not referring to divorcing an alcoholic who is no longer using or abusing alcohol. We are referring to someone who continues to show the same consistent and often compulsive alcohol abuse.