Alcohol addiction has various effects on both the alcoholic and even their family members and friends. Some of these effects are extreme to the alcoholic and their families; they include increased stress and anxiety in the family members, financial issues, trauma to family members, loss of trust by family members, and fear and confusion.
Increased Stress and Anxiety in Family Members
The family members of an alcoholic are likely to experience extreme stress and anxiety; this is because society sometimes views alcoholism as a negative trait; hence being identified as family members of an alcoholic could cause shame and anxiety to the family members. On the other hand, family members of an alcoholic, for example, the wife, may live in fear of being victims of their physical and emotional outbursts. According to Carr, alcohol has adverse effects on the consumer. For instance, it affects their emotions and, to some extent, could make them violent (2019). Most victims of this violence are usually family members.
Another situation that brings increased stress and anxiety to family members is that they constantly worry about the alcoholic’s safety. In most cases, drinking activities happen at night and away from home, and in areas of high insecurity, the family has to worry about their family member’s safety constantly. In some cases, the alcoholic decides to distance themselves from the family to protect them from the impact of abuse. Distancing themselves affects the family members and shows neglect to family members, which could cause a negative impact, especially on children.
When parents become alcohol addicts, the children are likely to suffer because the parents might be unstable and have poor parenting skills. Poor parenting ay increase the risk of children becoming alcoholics since they look up to their parents.
Financial Issues Effect
Alcohol addiction can be one of the most expensive expenditures on a family budget; the fact that someone may be addicted to alcohol means that they consume huge amounts of alcohol which may not be cheap. The significant amount of money used for alcohol could be used by the family to do important things instead of disposing of alcohol, which causes a major drain on the family budget. Another financial effect on the family of an alcoholic is that, for instance, if the alcoholic is caught driving under the influence of alcohol, this may attract a huge amount of money in fines, bail, or even may increase in car insurance.
In a case where the addiction is so extreme, the family may be forced to take the alcoholic to a rehabilitation center which is relatively not cheap. In other cases, the alcoholic may acquire diseases such as liver cirrhosis, where the family may have to cater for hospital medication, which is relatively expensive. Excessive consumption of alcohol could lead to extreme poverty; this is because when someone is an alcohol addict. Every small amount of money they earn is spent on alcohol; hence they cannot build themselves financially, which may cause them to be in huge debt.
Alcoholism may also make a person violent to the extent of destroying their property or other people’s property; when this happens, they are forced to make a replacement for the destroyed property, which is sometimes expensive. The family’s finances the addict uses to replace destroyed property could be used to do other significant things.
Trauma to Family Effect
Excessive alcohol consumption could make someone extremely angry for no particular reason. In most cases, this anger is directed at their family members, particularly their children or spouses. These extreme anger cases could lead to physical abuse, which causes the alcoholics to beat their family members, which in turn inflicts fear and causes trauma to these family members. When children, for example, witness domestic abuse, it inflicts fear and trauma to the point that they might fear getting into a relationship or marriage in the future.
Alcoholism may also cause trauma to family members when a family member dies due to diseases such as liver cirrhosis caused by alcohol. In some cases, this family member may have been the family’s breadwinner; when they die, it may cause the family to have extreme cases of depression hence trauma. Family members, for instance, the children may become orphans, which is depressing and may also struggle to make ends meet, which is a traumatic experience.
According to Scott et al., children of alcoholics may develop stress and mental health trauma since they may be forced to act like adults and take care of some responsibilities which are mostly above them for lack of options (2022). The children could also develop anger due to bitter feelings of being abandoned by the parent due to alcohol abuse. The spouses might experience traumatic stress since some of them might take the blames for their partner’s alcohol consumption or rather have stress trying to cure or control their partner’s drinking problem. The spouses might also be forced to endure inappropriate behavior, for instance, domestic violence, from their partners since they might have places to go or people to share their concerns.
Loss of Trust Effect
For family relationships to work, trust is a very important factor for spouses and children in the family. Family members must trust each other, either wife and husband or children and parents. When one of the family members becomes an alcoholic, trust is usually deteriorating since when someone becomes an alcoholic, they often lie, blame others and fail to fulfill some responsibilities. An example where a child can lose trust in an alcoholic parent is when they fail to provide for them and fail as a parent by not fulfilling their responsibilities; this completely kills the child’s trust in their parent.
Family members also lose trust in a situation where alcohol changes a person’s behavior. In a case of domestic violence, a spouse might fear for their lives when their partner is an addict since they might be at risk of losing their life when the spouse is extremely drunk. In some cases, the addict might not be trusted by family members with the family finances since they can overspend the family savings on alcohol. When the family members notice irresponsibility from the addict, lack of payment of bills, missing appointments, and getting home late often, they lose trust in the alcoholic.
The alcoholic may also be forced to involve themselves in unpleasant activities, for instance, stealing to fulfill their wants; this may play a big role in their family members losing trust in them since they develop negative traits and behaviors. At this point of addiction, they hardly fulfill their promises, contributing to a lack of trust among family members. The addicts might also become manipulated and hence untrustworthy.
Fear and Confusion in Family Members
Alcoholism may instill fear in family members in that addict who, after getting drunk, resorts to physical and emotional abuse may give the family members fear of being abused. When an addict takes out their anger on their family members, it also creates confusion for the children or the spouse, and they wonder if they are still their loved ones. The violent behavior of an alcoholic may cause fear among family members since they might express extreme anger. Alcohol also causes a person to misplace priorities, making drinking their all-time priority.
Alcoholism may also confuse when the children of addicted parents may have to switch roles and become responsible for providing for themselves and the rest of the family. Addiction might also confuse when one has to spare some time for nursing hangovers instead of carrying out their duties in the family. In most cases, hangovers hinder the person from fulfilling certain commitments and also lead to practicing poor behaviors such as poor eating habits. Alcoholism may also cause one to face many legal problems. For instance, they are likely to get involved in fights, drink, and drive domestic inputs, which are against the law.
According to Click, Selvaraj, Saya, and Chinnakali, alcoholism may also instill the fear of losing a family member due to diseases caused by alcohol and accidents due to driving under the influence of alcohol (2022). Family members may obtain fear because alcohol can cause disability. Alcoholism also causes memory loss, making someone forgetful and hindering their ability to perform important duties. Alcoholism also disrupts routines, such as bedtimes and mealtimes, which may confuse the children.
References
Carr, A. (2019). Couple therapy, family therapy and systemic interventions for adult‐focused problems: The current evidence base. Journal of Family Therapy, 41(4), 492-536.
Olickal, J. J., Selvaraj, R., Saya, G. K., & Chinnakali, P. (2022). Alcohol use among adult men and its impact on personal and family life: findings of a community-based cross-sectional survey and focus groups discussions from a low alcohol taxed region, Puducherry, India. Family Practice, 39(2), 316-322.
Scott, D., Ogeil, R. P., Maoyeri, F., Heilbronn, C., Coomber, K., Smith, K., … & Lubman, D. I. (2022). Alcohol accessibility and family violence-related ambulance attendances. Journal of interpersonal violence, 37(13-14), NP10661-NP10682.
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