"Functional Alcoholic" re-post
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Midwest
Posts: 11,481
Gonna check my local library catalog right now! Thanks for the info, FS!
ETA: Dang, they don't have it, and b/c it's fairly new, it's not real cheap on Amazon, even used...guess I'll add it to my list and see if the library picks it up at some point or if the price comes down on Amazon (which it almost certainly will).
ETA: Dang, they don't have it, and b/c it's fairly new, it's not real cheap on Amazon, even used...guess I'll add it to my list and see if the library picks it up at some point or if the price comes down on Amazon (which it almost certainly will).
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 183
This is actually something I've been thinking about recently. My AH is in his 8th year of sobriety after 30+ years of drinking. I always considered him a functional alcoholic when he was drinking, mostly because few if any outside of the house had any idea he was an alcoholic. To outsiders, he was a normal person. I knew differently but rationalized a lot of his behavior for many years.
My sister is currently dying of alcoholic cardiomyopathy. She checked herself out of the hospital against medical advice. She is confined to bed and can't feel her limbs but she is still drinking. It's a matter of weeks or days now, we think. She is 47 years old and has never been anything resembling functional. She has been drunk every day since she was a teenager, has never had a job or even attempted to live a normal person's life. I gave up a long time ago thinking that she would ever make an attempt at sobriety.
What I've been wondering lately is if people who are "functional," i.e. going through the motions, have a stronger chance of recovery than those who abandon themselves completely to the alcohol. To me it seems so, but my experience is admittedly limited. Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, but reading this just reminded me of my recent thoughts.
My sister is currently dying of alcoholic cardiomyopathy. She checked herself out of the hospital against medical advice. She is confined to bed and can't feel her limbs but she is still drinking. It's a matter of weeks or days now, we think. She is 47 years old and has never been anything resembling functional. She has been drunk every day since she was a teenager, has never had a job or even attempted to live a normal person's life. I gave up a long time ago thinking that she would ever make an attempt at sobriety.
What I've been wondering lately is if people who are "functional," i.e. going through the motions, have a stronger chance of recovery than those who abandon themselves completely to the alcohol. To me it seems so, but my experience is admittedly limited. Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, but reading this just reminded me of my recent thoughts.
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Join Date: Jun 2017
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These days whenever I hear the phrase functioning alcoholic, I can't help but chuckle at myself. I used that line of thinking and phrase and applied it as a descriptor of myself for many years. It kept me in my disease process for 30 years.
What an oxymoron! Yeah I was a highly functioning alcoholic...I functioned as an alcoholic. :~)
What an oxymoron! Yeah I was a highly functioning alcoholic...I functioned as an alcoholic. :~)
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: Reality
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thank you for posting honey pig,
its so weird i saw this documentary about addiction and a neurologist said there is not such thing as a functioning alcoholic or addict. yes you are holding your job for now but you are killing millions of neurons every day. it was very eye opening.
its so weird i saw this documentary about addiction and a neurologist said there is not such thing as a functioning alcoholic or addict. yes you are holding your job for now but you are killing millions of neurons every day. it was very eye opening.
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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When you think about it, using this expression might be considered a form of rationalizing, as in "he is not that bad, he has his job, brings money" he is highly functioning, so what are you complaining about? I had this experience, and am now actually more shocked by the whole community surrounding my ex and me, the secrecy, the denial, "the codependency by proxy," as I call it. The people who think that being in a relationship is a good thing for a person like my ex, that a wifey would fix him, and put him back in his place. That he will man up once he marries.
But I so hate that expression. So misleading and unfair to anybody touched by an alcoholic and to the alcoholic himself/herself.
But I so hate that expression. So misleading and unfair to anybody touched by an alcoholic and to the alcoholic himself/herself.
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