The cost of having a alcoholism is a tragedy played out in almost every home with a long term alcoholic - the family usually suffers serious and devastating financial problems that have long term, lifetime consequences.
Property and alcoholism many times go hand in hand. You just don't incur the loss of an income, but all the additional expenses that go along with it.
Over the years alcoholism cost our family hundreds of thousands of dollars. I didn't marry an alcoholic... but he slowly and secretly progressed into the deepest depths of alcoholism all while putting enormous energy into hiding his addiction. He went from very productive and hard working .. to a high functioning alcoholic .. and eventually to a sickly confused late stage alcoholic that consumed thousands of dollars every month with no financial contribution to his family.
Many of the causes for our financial problems already mentioned above were factors .. along with the ones below.
This is money that was lost forever ..... there was no longer a college fund, no retirement savings and emergency money. My kids will be stuck with large student loans that will take many years to pay off ... and my retirement funds are almost non existent.
My AH started secretly taking out credit cards to pay bills that further increased out debt... and high interest rates further diminished our income. Soon our once good credit was destroyed that we worked hard for decades to maintain. He had bills send to our business PO box so I wouldn't know about them.
When my AH became so out of control he could no longer live with us ... we also incurred the high expense of him living in his own place. This same situation was also played out with my alcoholic dad .. no financial support plus all his additional living expenses.
Our health insurance rates were sky high due to all his alcohol related illnesses. Since we have private insurance, we could not switch to a less expensive new policy because of his "pre existing" conditions.
Our 20 year old business gradually started falling apart when my AH started secretly drinking during the working day. He always blamed everything and everyone for why this business started losing income. Strangely, when he sobered up for 2 years, our income shot up quickly as his ability to focus and work hard returned. When he started secretly drinking once more, the business again went downhill.
I struggled for years working 7 days a week, long hours every day .. barely keeping our family financially afloat so we could stay in our home and have some stability ... more importantly so my kids could stay in one of the top ranked public high schools in the country that allowed them to get into the colleges of their choice ... and have a better future. However, it has come at a high cost of years of never ending work, little sleep and incredible stress.
I could go on and on ... the true cost is enormous and life changing for all involved. It is so much better if children can have 2 healthy supportive parents to care for them... both financially and emotionally ... this has been proven over and over again.
This insidious sickness tears apart such a millions of lives every year, destroys families and thrusts them into financial ruin ... and costs our country billions of dollars due to lost productivity, illness and accidents and injuries from drunk drivers.
I sincerely hope that someday this destructive madness will end and there will finally be a successful solution for alcohol and drug addictions.