At AspenRidge, a rehab center based in Denver, we understand the complex relationship between alcohol and relationships and the impact it can have on people’s lives. Our mission is to support and treat individuals struggling with alcohol addiction, helping them rebuild their relationships and regain control over their lives. Alcohol and Relationships are two topics that often intersect, and the consequences of this intersection can be devastating. For individuals struggling with alcohol addiction, maintaining healthy relationships can be challenging, as alcohol can become the focus of their lives, and their loved ones may feel neglected or hurt. The decline of a spouse’s health, sometimes paired with much more aggressive behavior, can be difficult to witness.

In addition to self-care, partners of those affected by alcohol addiction can intervene by helping them find rehabilitation services. While it can be challenging to convince a loved one to seek professional help, identifying how sobriety would benefit their lives can often help them take that first step. Self-care can get thrown out the window in relationships with alcohol addiction. That’s why it’s important to help yourself first to provide the best possible support for your loved one.

When Drinking or Drug Use is Harming the Relationship

Since many people with substance use disorder believe they’re healthy, an intervention can help. By communicating openly with patience and compassion, friends and family members can convey the importance of sobriety to their loved ones. Those who prioritize the needs of their partner above their own often suffer from mental health issues like depression and low-self esteem. When you feel affected by codependency, it’s helpful to take a break or distance yourself from the relationship.

• This exposure has the propensity to cause problematic relationships with substances in the future, with children of individuals who abuse alcohol being four times more likely to abuse substances themselves.
• Children are likely to experience self-blame, guilt, frustration, and anger while the child tries to fathom why their parent is behaving in this way.
• Drinking habits can also impact jobs and finances, causing further stress and insecurity.
• Trust is essential to a healthy and functioning relationship, and once it is damaged, it can be difficult to repair.

This lack of awareness of consequences can also have a deep impact on close personal relationships. Whether it’s spending time with family, playing a favorite sport, or getting lost in an enjoyable hobby, your other interests will gradually lose ground to substance use. This damages your relationships for a number of reasons, largely because people don’t like being second to substance use. For example, drinking alcohol relaxes you at first because alcohol enhances the effect of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and diminishes the effect of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Your brain quickly adapts to this change, producing less GABA and more glutamate.

Schedule time with a couple’s counselor to help build better communication

Being in a relationship with someone with alcohol use disorder can be challenging. Your husband may pick fights with you when he drinks or https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-alcohol-can-affect-relationships/ you’re no longer as intimate as you were before. You may feel like alcohol has ruined your relationship or is the cause of your divorce.

The
next sections of this Guide will walk you through the steps required to achieve
a successful response from an individual, couple, or family client with an
identified alcohol problem. Clinician skill and preference, as well as client literacy, will determine
whether self-report instruments or interviews are selected. The instruments can be
either self-administered, for clients who have sufficient reading ability,
or used in a face-to-face structured interview format. The interview format allows you to probe further and reconcile inconsistencies,
but it may not be an efficient use of limited session time — especially
when multiple family members need to be assessed. If you feel like alcohol has been affecting your relationships, consider reaching out for help so that you can be your best self for the people around you. Instead of trying to solve issues while under the influence, it’s OK to take a step back and address it at a later time, when you’re sober.

What Are the Financial and Social Problems For Alcoholics?

Alcoholism causes various physical consequences that are well-known and easy to recognize, but it also causes various psychological consequences that people rarely discuss. Drastic changes in a person’s behavior and personality also highly depend on the quantity and rate of alcohol consumption. A person who is severely dependent on alcohol, for example, may behave erratically and be more prone to violence. Common signs include being unable to control your drinking or lacking the ability to stop or reduce your alcohol intake.

If you are drinking to the extent of developing alcohol use disorder, you may find you spend increasingly less time with your friends, especially if your friends do not drink to excess. It’s not only romantic relationships that are unraveled by alcohol abuse, though. To effect a referral to
the alcohol treatment system, you can obtain information about local treatment
resources through your state alcohol and drug agency.

Seeking Help Begins with Awareness

Perhaps, the biggest and most detrimental impacts come at the level of intimacy, partnership, and marriage. It is often understated what the partner of someone with an addiction endures. It hurts emotionally and mentally, but sometimes, unfortunately, it hurts physically as well.

Surrounding oneself with people who drink heavily or have other substance use issues may reinforce these bad habits. According to the AACAP, children may notice changes in behavior from family members under the influence and falsely believe that they are the cause of these mood swings. Although this interview
protocol may also be conducted using a 30-day time frame, we use a 90-day (3-month)
time frame in the protocol and attached forms to capture less frequent incidents
of heavy drinking.

It is impossible to make plans and stick to them when one partner is struggling just to make it through a day without drinking. A woman lady in a group therapy session once described how her alcoholism was affecting her children. Recently, she had turned off her phone and gone on a bender that lasted a whole weekend.

If you’ve reached the point where it’s hard to communicate with your partner, consider reaching out to a therapist who specializes in couples and family counseling for help getting back on track. Given that alcohol can contribute to all these issues, it’s likely that alcohol use has the potential to lead to separation issues in some couples. A 2013 study found that of the 52 people who participated, over 34 of them (that’s more than 60%) noted that substance use was a factor for separation. This was especially true in cases where the partner refused to acknowledge an issue or get help.