Has Substance Use Caused Problems in Your Personal Life? Pt. 3 of 7

This is another question that one would find in many quizzes aimed at answering the question:

Am I an Alcoholic?

It has been our experience that lack of ability to control one’s drinking or drug use, despite all desire to do so, may be indicative of the disease of alcoholism or addiction. When an alcoholic loses control of their drinking, all sorts of difficulties can arise, including problems in personal and professional relationships.

You may have experimented with drugs or alcohol in your youth or adolescence and maybe even gotten into a bit of trouble – maybe an altercation in a bar, a bad hangover causing you to show up late for work, or a fight with a loved one. Most people can stop or moderate their drinking after a bad experience. If such occurrences are the norm for you and you find your personal and professional life slipping on a regular basis, you may have a problem.

If an alcoholic is in the throes of their disease, drinking is apt to take precedence over everything else – possibly even including family and work responsibilities.

From an article on NCADD (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence):

“Addiction is a family disease that stresses the family to the breaking point, impacts the stability of the home, the family’s unity, mental health, physical health, finances, and overall family dynamics.

Living with addiction can put family members under unusual stress. Normal routines are constantly being interrupted by unexpected or even frightening kinds of experiences that are part of living with alcohol and drug use. What is being said often doesn’t match up with what family members sense, feel beneath the surface or see right in front of their eyes. The alcohol or drug user, as well as family members, may bend, manipulate and deny reality in their attempt to maintain a family order that they experience as gradually slipping away. The entire system becomes absorbed by a problem that is slowly spinning out of control. Little things become big and big things get minimized as pain is denied and slips out sideways.”

If this is what your family dynamic (or this can apply to your work environment too) looks like, then you may have a problem.

To explore this further, you can take any number of quizzes to see if there are other areas in your life being affected by your alcohol consumption, check out this article for some of those resources.

If you are ready to ask for help, we are here for you! Please call us or contact us by clicking the link below.

In case you missed the other blogs in this series:

Part 1 – How do I know if I’m an alcoholic?

Part 2 – Is it hard for you to imagine life without drugs or alcohol?

Part 3 – Has your substance use caused problems in your personal or professional life?

Part 4 – Do you need to use drugs or alcohol to feel “normal”?

Part 5 – Have you ever felt defensive, guilty, or ashamed about your drinking or using?

Part 6 – Do you have a habit of drinking or using alone?

Part 7 – Have you tried to stop drinking or using on your own and found that you couldn’t do it?