Alcohol abuse represents more than habitual alcohol consumption. It represents a significant mental health disorder, one which manifests in an unhealthy pattern of alcohol abuse and potential harm to the individual and their close family, including spouses.
The Effects of Living with an Alcoholic Spouse
Studies have found that chronic alcoholism can adversely impact the entire family, including a spouse. Spouses have to struggle with the severe psychological impact that comes from the effects of living with an alcoholic spouse. This can extend to psychological stress and depression in spouses, with an increased risk of intimate partner violence or aggressive behaviors.
Physical Effects of Living with an Alcoholic Spouse
The physical effects can include the risk of injury and emotional trauma if a spouse is drunk driving and you are in the car and get in an accident.
Loved ones whose spouses struggle with alcohol addiction have to deal with things like insomnia or sleep deprivation that come from internal concern over a loved one or from nights spent waiting for a loved one to come home from a bar or a party.
There can be physical health issues that come from chronic stress and changes in family dynamics when you are living with an alcoholic spouse, trying to care for them, and dealing with stress, depression, and anxiety.
Social Effects
There can be several devastating social effects of living with an alcoholic spouse. In some cases, an alcoholic spouse might do loud or embarrassing things at parties or in public spaces, becoming disruptive.
This can cause issues like fights or public disturbances, being asked to leave restaurants, or simply being too embarrassed to go to friend’s houses or to group events.
Social isolation can be a serious consequence of living with an alcoholic spouse.
Emotional Effects
The emotional effects can be many and very devastating. In some aspects, living with an alcoholic spouse means having to take care of them, which adds an additional burden and changes the dynamics of the family relationships. Caring for someone with an addiction can be physically, socially, and emotionally demanding, but it also means that your needs go overlooked.
To that end, you may no longer feel supported yourself, as though you no longer have a partner in the home. This lack of a partner can spread through several areas of daily life ranging from no longer having a partner to care for the children or do household chores, all the way to no longer having a partner with whom you can confide, build intimacy, or have a sex life.
It’s not uncommon for tension to build as a result, leading to feelings of resentment, anger, and chronic irritability toward that spouse, especially when they are unable to take care of themselves or fulfill family responsibilities that then become your burden.
Practical Effects
Other effects can extend to more practical things like an alcoholic spouse who no longer performs at work or loses their job, spends too much money on alcohol, or gets into legal trouble. All of these things can affect the family by taking away money needed for bills, losing the house or a main source of income, and dealing with the repercussions of something like a DUI.
Finding Care at Ava Recovery
At Ava Recovery, we provide detox and residential inpatient care for clients who are struggling with alcoholism. If you have a spouse who is struggling with alcohol abuse, we can provide trauma-focused therapy that combines DBT and IFS group therapy, helping your spouse to better connect to themselves and, by extension, better connect to you.
With our internal family systems therapy, you can tackle the effects of living with an alcoholic spouse in a unique way. This type of psychotherapy helps individuals understand different parts or sub-personalities so that they can change the dynamics of themselves and their family members.
During the sessions, we help clients understand themselves and become more compassionate, something that then helps the spouses who have been dealing with the effects of living with an alcoholic spouse and may now receive more support and resolution for painful emotions from the past.
At our facility, your spouse can access:
- A pool
- A professional chef
- Semi-private rooms
- Ice baths
- A volleyball court
- Workout space
We work hard to include essential family members in the overall recovery program, especially as individuals need continual support and outpatient care.
The effects of living with an alcoholic spouse can be severely disruptive and emotionally traumatic, but with the right type of care, your spouse and you can work together to rebuild.
