How to Convince a Functional Alcoholic to Attend Treatment

Consciously or unconsciously, the codependent may help the alcoholic to continue drinking to maintain the status quo. Many high-functioning alcoholics earn a good living and can support their families while continuing to drink. Intervening in the addictive behavior may be seen as a threat to the family’s financial security — even if the family must put up with emotional neglect or physical abuse. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics noted that nearly 60% of violent incidents against a domestic partner or family member were committed under the influence of alcohol. Functional alcoholics are often in deep denial about their problem. After all, they have managed to maintain the appearance of success despite their addiction.

However, you can convince them to set certain limits to how much they should be drinking. This will help you keep them out of trouble and save you from embarrassing situations. When they don’t have a limit, they will drink more than they need to and will surely be uncontrollable. The one thing that you would do at this point is go into denial mode. In the worst case, you would also want to avoid the situation as much as you can.

How Living With An Alcoholic Spouse Can Affect You

Functional alcoholics are often intelligent, hardworking and well-educated. Their professional status or personal success can make it hard to approach them about having a “problem” with alcohol. Nearly 20% of alcoholics are highly functional and well-educated with good incomes. Because these types of users appear stable and mostly unaffected by their drinking, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ the steps to effectively confront a functioning alcoholic and work with them on their behaviors can be even more difficult. Quality addiction treatment centers can help you and your loved one overcome your struggles and break free of alcoholism for good. Your husband can overcome his addiction, all he has to do is take the first step and get enrolled.

Despite such emotional problems, almost half of them never displaced their frustration on children and three-fourth of them never ignored their children. It was seen that only 7% of the wives reported that they often ignored their own physical health while 10% of them also reported sleep disturbances. There were 13% of wives who reported that their social visits get reduced often owing to their husband’s drinking and half of them reported feeling ashamed in society.

Treatment

You stay up all night with your stomach in knots, then work through the next day like a champion to keep things as normal as possible for your family. No one can fully appreciate how much you shoulder, because ironically, you spend so much time making it look like things are easy. But I know you’re exhausted on a level that someone who’s functional alcoholic husband simply “tired” could never comprehend. As some alcoholics do, he has sought help, and we’re going on two years with our new, less tumultuous lifestyle. But he had to hit rock bottom to do it, and he dragged me down with him. There may be many reasons why someone is hesitant to seek help — from lack of awareness to stigma and shame.

• Witnessing a loved one’s drinking and the ramifications of their alcohol abuse can feel overwhelming and commingle with feelings of shame, fear, anger, or self-blame.
• According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse, behavioral therapy is the most commonly used form of treatment.
• If you see that he’s unwilling to commit to recovery, maybe it’s time to leave.