Living With an Alcoholic: How to Deal With an Alcoholic Spouse

Medication and psychological treatments are shown to be effective, according to 2019 research. A specific type of codependency can occur in children of those with AUD. Called “role reversal,” this is when a child feels responsible for their parent. This reversal of responsibilities can lead the child to develop a pattern of codependency in future relationships. Building up a support network around you — along with reading advice on how to cope — can help you get through the most challenging times. If you live with someone with alcohol use disorder, you know addiction doesn’t just impact one person.

• If the person is open to getting help, offer to put them in touch with a professional.
• The 8 strategies below offer a starting place for navigating your relationship with a spouse or partner who has AUD.
• It’s also important to keep in mind that you cannot control what your loved one does or manage their alcohol consumption.
• The stress and strain of the situation can manifest in insomnia, headaches, digestive issues, and heightened levels of anxiety or depression.
• Still, when you know how to deal with your alcoholic spouse, life can become better.

How To Cope When Living With An Alcoholic Spouse

• The Marriage.com Editorial Team is a group of experienced relationship writers, experts, and mental health professionals.
• Alcoholism is quite difficult to catch during the initial few meetings, but by the time you get to know about it, it is too late.
• I learned that gut health and hormones, balancing your gut health is also balancing your hormones.
• There are many treatment options available for people misusing alcohol.
• If you take the suggestions outlined in this article, you may be able to help your partner understand that getting treatment is the only way to stop the cycle of addiction and get them on the path to recovery.
• Avoid enabling them.This means you can’t take care of them when they’re hungover, make excuses for their behavior, or bail them out of jail if they are arrested for drunk driving.

Learning to recognize the signs of AUD is an important first step, says Spotorno, because it can make it easier to identify when they may need professional help. Kristeen Cherney is a freelance writer and PhD candidate who specializes in covering topics related to mental disabilities, women’s health, skin health, diabetes, thyroid disease, asthma, and allergies. She’s also currently working on her dissertation, which explores intersections of disability studies and literacy studies. When she’s not researching or writing, Cherney enjoys getting outdoors as much as possible. When living with someone who has AUD, it’s important to understand that you didn’t cause the addiction. It’s also important to ask your loved one directly what you can do to help, especially during special events where alcohol may be served.

Offer practical support

When you live with a spouse who has an alcohol use disorder, taking care of yourself is important. It gives kids an opportunity to spend time with their peers and discuss their alcoholic parent with people their own age who understand and can relate to the situation. Divorce and parental separation are damaging to children, families, the economy, and society as a whole, and this paper outlines these adverse effects. Prior to no-fault divorce laws, the legal procedures for obtaining a divorce were often difficult and expensive, so that only the most dysfunctional marriages ended in divorce.

Alcoholic Husband: How to help an Alcoholic Spouse?

• In this blog post, we’ll explore what it’s like to live with an alcoholic spouse and provide guidance on how to navigate the challenges with compassion and resilience.
• Get mental health updates, research, insights, and resources directly to your inbox.
• These groups provide a sense of community and understanding that can be instrumental in the recovery process.
• Learn about alcoholism, alcohol dependence, the effects of excessive drinking, alcohol withdrawal, and alcohol detox to better understand the challenges your loved one is facing.
• The best scientific literature to date suggests that, with the exception of parents faced with unresolvable marital violence, children fare better when parents work at maintaining the marriage.
• It can be difficult to know what to do to minimize conflict and stress, support your loved one, and tend to your own needs at the same time.
• Encourage them to learn from the setback and seek the necessary support to get back on track.

If you’re concerned about your husband’s drinking, there are steps you can take. Have an honest conversation and express your feelings and concerns non-confrontational way. You can encourage him to seek help from a doctor or addiction specialist, attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, or join a support group. You can also suggest healthier activities such as taking classes, going to the gym, or volunteering. Confronting an alcoholic husband can be a difficult conversation to have, and it’s often one how to live with an alcoholic partner that many spouses are hesitant to start.

Because alcohol use can also exaggerate emotional states while decreasing self-awareness, it may also lead to problematic behavior, including verbal aggression, according to Metcalf. Even if your partner blacked out and doesn’t remember treating you this way, this behavior still counts as abuse. AUD can affect your relationship with your partner in a number of ways. It can also affect other loved ones in and out of your household, including children, siblings, friends, and parents. Maybe you have some concerns about your spouse or long-term partner’s increasing alcohol use but feel unsure about the best way to bring up the changes you’ve noticed or offer them support.

Making excuses to drink:

Most of your energy has probably gone toward helping your spouse manage their symptoms or to try to get them into detox or rehab. But it’s likely that you haven’t thought much about yourself other than to ask, “What can I do? ” There are ways to help your spouse while also helping yourself so that you both can be healthy and happy. Utilizing multiple resources on this list instead of just one can streamline recovery, as alcohol abuse requires consistent and constant care.

Well, they’re in denial because they believe they’re not creating any problems due to overdrinking. Alcoholism is quite difficult to catch during the initial few meetings, but by the time you get to know about it, it is too late. No matter how much you date a person before marriage, some things are revealed afterward. Enabling occurs when someone else covers up or makes excuses for the person who has a SUD. As a result, the person with a SUD doesn’t deal with the consequences of their actions.

Alcohol and Cialis: Risks, Side Effects & Treatment

One of the mistakes many people make is enabling their alcoholic spouses or trying to prevent consequences from occurring. Instead, it only prevents your spouse from experiencing the results of his or her actions that could eventually lead to recovery. If you allow it to, your spouse’s alcoholism will take over your life. The best way to decide what treatment may be best for a person with an alcohol use disorder is to speak with a mental health professional. There are a variety of emotions and behaviors that can come up if you live with someone misusing alcohol. The effects and feelings may depend on the type of relationship you have with the person with AUD.