High Functioning Alcoholic
 

I have seen this expression bandied around for ages now.

My mother was a teacher at a special needs school for the mentally and physically handicapped. As adults some of the less severe cases were then encouraged to get jobs and homes. I have been privileged to see a good few of her previous students go on to work jobs enabling them to pay their own way, keep a clean and tidy home, finding a partner to share their lives with and some have children.

I would love to know what it is a high functioning alcoholic is with comparison to a physically/mentally handicapped individual who, as far as I can see, is as high functioning in society as a high functioning alcoholic and whether the alcoholic thinks they have more of a struggle to remain functioning than someone who us born with these obstacles to creating a "normal" life for themselves.

Does high functioning have to be earning a certain amount if money or have a x bed home, I don't get it and would love to hear some feedback?

Have always found it to be a self rationalization to keep drinking. Personally I find it an oxymoron. Like saying low functioning to your potential.

To me, keeping up appearances, sometimes overcompensating to demonstrate how 'fine' everything is (add a dash of brittle to that), behaviour & conduct that constituted bitch on wheels (type A++ personality)
Have often heard it used interchangeably with (roughly translated) kept my house, job, family but was a pain in the rear to live with, be around & love & was fortunate enough to clock it before losing any of those things due to active alcoholism

That was great PipeFish, it's the effort that goes into keeping up appearances. So I guess that would be appearing to be a functioning alcoholic at all costs. Yes that was extremely important to me during my drinking...not sure i was that successful in hindsight though lol

Fonctioning in the sense of maintaining a minimum quality of life's basic needs. Feeding family, working, self grooming etc.

But it does involve going trough work days feeling like hell. But for a high functioning Alcoholic doing the basic things responsibilities is a must.

Non-functioning will stop showering, cleaning the house, work, probably end up homeless.

It sounds like there is a big difference between someone describing themselves as a high functioning alcoholic and a functioning alcoholic.

High functioning seems to imply a certain sense of pride and ego that in spite of being an alcoholic I am still high functioning whereas a functioning alcoholic is describing themselves as one who is still able to keep functioning despite alcoholism...i.e at the moment.

Nope, me neither :) & am beyond words grateful that I got (& continue to get) beyond my own hype! Isn't this stuff great? :)

Take a piece of dog poop and spray it down with something that gets rid of the stench. Paint it the color of your choice and decorate it to your liking. It may look good on the outside but it's still a piece of poop.

Same thing.

I think people call themselves HFAs as they feel they are somehow better or not "as bad" as others because they have a well paying job, home, family etc. It's not a term a person usually uses to describe another.

IMO it's pretty pointless. At the end of the day we have a problem. What we earn or where we live makes no difference at all.

"I may be totally screwing up my life and not living it as joyfully as I could, impairing the realization of my highest self and depriving myself, my family and the world of the very BEST me I can be..... but at least I'm not as bad as THAT guy over there"

"High-Functioning"

It's a BS rationalization.

If we had a coin-flipping tournament (in a bracket like the NCAA) with 64 people, someone would win 6 coin flips in a row and win the tournament. Then they could call themselves a high functioning coin flipper.

I called in sick with hangovers and even drank at work, but never lost my job.

I caused my family distress and missed family functions, but never lost my family.

I drove drunk, but never got a DUI.

That doesn't make me high functioning. That makes me an alcoholic riding a lucky streak.

In my opinion. It's a term to rationalize drinking, nothing more or less. Just as some use "slip/oops/relapse" to rationalize the act of returning to drinking after quitting.

You can change what you call things, but you can never change what they are. Accepting the truth is half the battle in getting sober.

Actually, HFA is the term that "got me in the door."

Came from a family/friends that believed that you're only an alcoholic if you are always at rock bottom--constantly drunk, no job, no spouse, lost kids, legal problems, etc. Even though I knew my drinking wasn't working in my life, I didn't fit the above criteria, so what did I do? Kept drinking.

Once I heard the term HFA, I thought, "THAT'S ME!" No escaping the fact that I had a problem. I might have thought that I was keeping it all together, but I so wasn't.

The key word in high functioning alcoholic is alcoholic. To me, it doesn't justify anything, just acknowledges the facade and warns that it will inevitably come crumbling down.

This is a good post. To me an alcoholic is an alcoholic, but I don't dislike the term because I do think it can make people who haven't hit a low bottom seek help before they do. JMO.

btw - I always just thought high functioning alcoholic meant someone who does well with their career, can pay their bills on time, no trouble with the law, hasn't lost their car/home/spouse/kids...someone who hasn't really suffered major consequences yet.

There are a lot of great thoughts here that make me re-think the term high functioning alcoholic. I would have considered myself a high functioning alcoholic but wore it more as a mark of hypocrisy and shame rather than pride.

What it meant for me is that as my alcoholism progressed, many aspects of my life also progressed in a positive direction. Home life was stable and the marriage relationship strengthened and deepened over time, we made the move from renting to owning our own place, career progressed with promotions and salary increases, there were awards for outstanding work place performance, a mountain of past debt was cleared, etc. Externally I had a dream life, but no one knew that so many days on the way home from work I'd buy a bottle of vodka, go into the first alley I could find without too many people to pop the lid and get a head start before I got home and kept on with a typical night ending with me at my home office computer watching sappy YouTube videos and being all weepy and deluding myself into thinking that all the emotion was actually a gift to be able to feel.

Yep. It makes us sound smart, makes us feel better. Soft language. In my case it helped to clear the air and just admit I had a problem with alcohol.

If there are high functioning non-alcoholics, why shouldn't there be high functioning alcoholics. Truth is some people function better than others. Maintaining a job house family while being a hungover drunk is really pretty high functioning, at least while it last. I had a very we'll respected drug & alcohol therapist basically laugh at me when I used the term on my first visit. Guess what - I did not go back. What a set back for me. Newcomers don't know that the term is looked upon with derision by old timers & really it is degrading to those of us who are seeking help before hitting rock bottom. Right now, functioning ( high, low or whatever I wanna call it) is the only thing keeping me going. I'm here so I can continue to function at this level & hopefully even better once I have some real sober time behind me. If I am still going to be considered alcoholic after say, 5, 10 or 15 years sober and I still have my great job home & family can I then call myself a high functioning alcoholic or do I have to give up hope of ever beings high functioning person just because I was once drinking too much and admitted I had a disease called alcoholism?

This is interesting because I have only met people before where the term HFA kept them out if the door as them, their family, their friends etc would enable them to continue drinking as in that old myth of how all alcoholics live on the street and drink out of brown paper bags.

Glad the tern got you in:-)

A high functioning person (normal or otherwise) would, to me, be someone like Sir Winston Churchill who was reported to need only a few hours sleep a night and got England through the Second World War. Or someone like Sir Richard Branson or Margaret Thatcher or the like. I would include any normal person with those patterns if living including owners if businesses who work 20 hours a day and still make time for family on Sunday or the single mother that has 2 kids and works 3 jobs or the disabled person who devotes their time to caring for other sand helping their community etc.

So I think high functioning can be seen as an entity by itself. In that way one of the examples above might be an alcoholic in which case they would be a high functioning alcoholic. However if the alcoholic is not doing anything extraordinary other that running a home, got a family and a job then I would definitely consider them a functioning alcoholic...possibly.

The High part of HFA just leaves a bit of a rub because I can imagine myself saying that when I was drinking with pride. Also my idea of holding down a job, having a family and keeping a home whilst claiming to be a HFA would have been ok whilst drinking but then at some point I would have sobered up and learned that functioning takes on a whole other meaning when applied to me by other people.

Me, too!

I remember reading this book and having a lot of "a-ha" (and "oh no" moments): Amazon.com: Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic: Professional Views and Personal Insights (The Praeger Series on Contemporary Health and Living) eBook: Sarah Allen Benton: Kindle Store

I'm still surrounded by people who believe that their excessive drinking is normal because they haven't (yet) experienced any pronounced consequences related to it. I like this book because I felt it debunks/expands the traditional concept of an alcoholic. I get that it can work in the opposite way by helping an individual justify their drinking.

Interesting thread.