Author: Gary Jackson

Help for Spouses of Alcoholics

With your support and the help of a mental health professional, your spouse has a better shot at successfully quitting drinking. With the help of a trained mental health professional, you can identify your spouse’s triggers and help them find healthier coping mechanisms. This way, you can support them along the road to recovery and find ways to help yourself.

Adults struggling with substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder, can heal these co-occurring family issues by attending family therapy with their spouses and/or children. With adults, engaging one adult – a worried significant other, for example – using a family therapy approach can strengthen the entire family system and support the person overcoming AUD. While addiction is difficult for everyone, nobody has to go through it alone. While the addict has the ability to go to treatment to address their issues, there is no designed “treatment” for the family members and other loved ones of the person suffering from addiction.

Is My Spouse’s Alcoholism a Reason for Divorce?

Even if you know or suspect that your husband or wife has a problem with alcohol, it’s important to know the scope of the problem itself. Look at the list of AUD symptoms at the beginning of this article and determine how many of them your partner has so you can get an idea of the severity of the problem. Alcohol abuse is much more common in men than in women, and it affects them in different ways.

• If the alcoholic is a parent, the effects of the situation will be lasting.
• Try to be impartial when looking at the symptoms of AUDs if your spouse seems to fit this profile.
• This way, you can support them along the road to recovery and find ways to help yourself.

When seeking help to recover from alcohol use disorder, there are several therapeutic approaches to changing the individual’s behaviors so they stay sober. Strong family support through addiction treatment helps those in recovery stay away from intoxicating substances. Family therapy can rebuild the family’s support structure, so everyone stays psychologically, emotionally, and behaviorally healthy. Read on to learn more about family therapy for addiction and how it is beneficial during the alcohol treatment process. Attachment disorders are common in children whose parents struggled with alcohol or drugs even when child abuse and neglect are not present.

Signs & Symptoms of an Alcoholic

The choice to leave any marriage is difficult, and only you can decide if staying or leaving is right for you. But consider your wellbeing when making that decision, in spite of any internal or external pressures you may feel. Whether your spouse is male or female will help you to understand the specific dangers and co-occurrences of their AUD. Keep in mind that someone with alcohol dependence usually goes through a few stages before they are ready to make a change. Until they begin to contemplate quitting, any actions you take to “help” them quit will often be met with resistance. You don’t have to create a crisis, but learning detachment will help you allow a crisis—one that may be the only way to create change—to happen.