Alcoholism and Marriage

Being married to an alcoholic is known to have its challenges, alcoholism and marriage are not a good mix.  A person who is in active addiction tends to be so focused on their next drink that other priorities, such as family, can easily fall to the side.

For more on living with an alcoholic, please follow the link.

The fallout from this is often felt by a spouse or partner. The impact could be related to time spent together, mood changes and financial responsibilities. Alcohol would likely have an impact on communication as well.

It is important to note that the challenges that are common among individuals in active addiction vary from those associated with an individual who is in recovery. Both have their scenarios own challenges.However, the issues that are experienced at various points have their unique aspects. Moreover, the recovery process can keep a marriage intact.

It is often seen that it is the spouse or partner who makes the first move to get help for an individual with alcohol addiction. It could be followed by further efforts on their part like keeping them away from situations that make them drink as well as preventing access to alcohol. This all has its benefits in helping a person focus on other things, which are important.

The point here is that recovery can take time. This time could be considered as an opportunity to learn new things, positive ways of interacting with family members and other aspects which would help strengthen the family unit.

What You Should Know About Alcoholism and Marriage

More than one-half of adults in the U.S. have a close family member who has abused alcohol or is addicted to the drug. When the drinker is a husband or wife, the effect on the marriage can be dramatic and damaging.

Not only is the mental and physical well-being of the drinker at risk; the marriage relationship and family unit can be significantly affected.

• The psychological and other health-related ramifications to each affected family member can be traumatic and long-lasting.
• According to psychologist Neill Neill, Ph.D., if a spouse or partner shifts from enjoying a drink to compulsively needing alcohol to feel okay, the non-alcoholic spouse may also shifted from being giving and caring to being addicted to the partner’s care.
• In other words, with alcoholism in marriage, compulsive care taking often grows alongside the deteriorating self-care of the compulsive drinker. An alcoholic spouse may neglect or abuse his or her family, deplete financial resources, and create legal problems for the family.
• Dr. Neill emphasizes that alcoholics, like all abusers and addicts, lie (bold faced lies, lies of omission, cover-ups, minimization), make excuses, blame others for their drinking, and continue to use alcohol regardless of consequences.
• If there are children present, they copy the behavior they see modeled by the drinker and learn how to grow up and be alcoholics themselves.

The non-profit National Healthy Marriage Resource Center(NHMRC) offers answers to some frequently-asked questions about alcoholism and marriage. A sampling of these questions are below.

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• Marital distress. Alcohol abuse increases the feelings of marital distress. Individuals in marriages in which one or both spouses is an alcoholic report higher levels of marital distress or trouble than do married individuals who are not married to alcoholics.
• Anger. Marital satisfaction is related strongly to a couple’s ability to communicate effectively. But heavy alcohol use is associated with more negative and hostile communication, more expressions of anger, and less warmth and unity in the relationship. These factors decrease a couple’s satisfaction in their marriage and create greater tension.
• Everyday family responsibilities. Alcohol abuse decreases marital satisfaction because it decreases the drinking spouse’s ability to participate in everyday household tasks and responsibilities. This inability leads to greater stress on the non-drinking spouse and decreases satisfaction in the marriage.
• Psychological distress. Alcohol abuse increases the psychological distress of the non-drinking spouse. An adult’s alcohol abuse also is related to children’s increased social, emotional,behavioral, and academic problems, which, in turn, leads to more stress in the family and less marital satisfaction.

Yes. Some evidence for this is that divorced or separated men and women are three times more likely to be alcoholics or to have an alcohol problem than are married men and women.

• With alcoholism and marriage, alcohol problems are related to increased rates of marital violence, poor communication, and feelings of marital distress that lead to a greater risk of divorce.
• Differences between spouses in their drinking behaviors decrease marital quality and increase the likelihood of divorce. One reason for this increased likelihood is that drinking has an impact on the amount of time that partners spend together, especially if the alcoholic frequently drinks away from home.
• The more time spent apart, the less satisfied the nonalcoholic spouse becomes and the greater the potential for divorce.

• Damaging communication. With alcoholism and marriage, alcoholic spouses tend to use more negative and damaging communication (e.g., criticizing, blaming, contempt), express more anger, and show lower levels of warmth when trying to solve a problem than do nonalcoholic spouses. This kind of negative communication discourages the use of positive problem-solving skills such as open discussion and encouragement.
• Less problem solving. Couples in which one partner is alcoholic engage in problem-solving less often than do other couples. Partners in such marriages may lose the desire to engage in problem-solving and give up when alcohol is involved because they anticipate that the conversation will soon become negative. As this pattern continues with alcoholism and marriage, important issues such as family finances, sexual intimacy, and childrearing decisions go unresolved because it is easier to avoid communicating than it is to deal with the stress and negative emotions that are associated with alcohol-related communication problems.
• Personality characteristics. Personality characteristics common among alcoholics also can affect communication. Alcoholics tend to be less conscientious, less agreeable, and more anxious and hypersensitive than are nondrinkers. These personality characteristics make effective communication and problem solving more difficult.
• Effects on the brain. Researchers believe that alcohol’s effect on the brain may contribute to the increase in the negative communication. Alcohol appears to impair a person’s ability to understand and properly interpret what a spouse is saying. Alcoholics tend to interpret things their partners say in a very negative way and this leads them to respond with greater anger and negative emotions.

Alcohol abuse is frequently related to marital violence:

• Among battered women, 40-60 percent reported that their husbands were heavy or problem drinkers. Among married men admitted to alcohol treatment centers, 50-70 percent reported participating in partner violence, with 20-30 percent of these men reporting having engaged in severe violence towards their spouses.
• The more frequently men are intoxicated, the more likely they are to be verbally and physically violent toward their spouses. Alcohol abuse is connected to increased aggression and marital violence that tends to be more severe and more likely to result in injury.
• Spouses under the influence of alcohol tend to act more aggressively, perhaps because their ability to think rationally is reduced. Alcohol tends to make individuals more impulsive and to decrease their ability to restrain their aggression. This pattern is especially noticeable among spouses who are more aggressive even without alcohol.

• Alcohol abuse is related to sexual problems, such as lower sexual satisfaction and erectile dysfunction among men. For women, alcohol abuse may slow down orgasm.

How Can Therapy Help Couples Struggling With Alcoholism and Marriage?

• Alcoholism is not simply an individual problem. Families often play a significant role in the “cause” and “cure” of alcohol abuse. For this reason, research shows that therapy that involves the spouse and possibly other family members is more helpful to overcoming alcoholism than is only treating the individual who has the alcohol problem.Learn more about treatment programs available, speak with a treatment provider.