Several types of professional programs and levels of addiction services can treat alcohol use disorder, ensuring your loved one can seek one out that best fits their needs and lifestyle. While 12-step programs and inpatient rehabilitation are standard options, thanks to years of research, everyone can find a solution to help them reach sobriety. 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. Many people with alcohol use disorder hesitate to get treatment because they don’t recognize that they have a problem. An intervention from loved ones can help some people recognize and accept that they need professional help.
How Alcohol Addiction Affects Relationships
However, this form of therapy is only beneficial if they can take accountability for their alcohol use and how it affects the partnership. When someone is dependent on alcohol, they will become increasingly unavailable as alcohol takes more of a priority. They may decline social invitations if alcohol is not present, or they may be unable to attend events due to spending time drinking. If someone is ashamed of their alcohol use, they may be more likely to hide their alcohol use, leading to secretive behaviors.
Abusing Alcohol Reduces Your Availability
If you experience the above warning signs or people in your life express concern about your drinking and its effects on your relationships, it’s time to seek help. Alcohol can cause spirals in mental health by negatively affecting any mental health symptoms that a person struggles with, such as anxiety. Alcohol use can also contribute to other substance use, due to self-medicating with these mental health symptoms, or due to the impulsive behaviors that come from poor judgment when someone is drinking. Getting help for alcohol addiction will not only improve your relationships, it can also start you on your path toward a healthier, addiction-free future. 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.
Try to reduce the amount of alcohol you consume a day
That said, they certainly can choose to get help — and you can support them with starting that recovery process and sticking with it. Frequent or heavy alcohol use can pose a range of challenges, when it comes to maintaining a strong, healthy relationship. Alcohol can greatly increase the chance of aggressive behavior in some people and often plays a role in intimate partner violence. Drinking may affect a person’s ability to earn a living, or they may make impulsive, economically unsound decisions while drinking that leave them and those they care for in a vulnerable position. Spouses of partners with alcohol use disorders report decreased satisfaction and increased depression, anxiety, and stress.
- Al-Anon Family Groups and similar organizations seek to help people in this situation understand their role in the environment.
- Knowing your partner’s triggers can make it easier for you to support them when they try to avoid specific factors that might prompt a drinking episode.
- For example, if you work and see most of your close friends remotely, the impact on your relationships may manifest differently than someone who lives in a multi-generational household and works several in-person jobs.
Alcohol’s Effects on Health
Although the road to recovery can be long for everyone involved, it’s possible to make amends with those you might’ve hurt or lost in the past due to SUD. You’ll soon start receiving the latest Mayo Clinic health information you requested in your inbox. Health, safety and socioeconomic problems attributable to alcohol alcohol and relationships can be reduced when governments formulate and implement appropriate policies. We do not receive any commission or fee that is dependent upon which treatment provider a caller chooses. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.
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Addiction and Relationships with Heidi Rain
- Alcohol can change the way that people interact with each other, sometimes in negative ways.
- It may take time, but you can recover from SUD and the relationship issues that stem from it.
- The key to dealing with alcohol dependency in the family is staying focused on the situation as it exists today.