Alcohol has been legal for years. However, just because it’s legal, that doesn’t mean it’s harmless. Alcohol is addictive, and it has a high potential for abuse as well.
Rehab for drugs and alcohol is always available, and if you have someone in your family who has a problem with substances, you can help them seek treatment. In this article, we’ll discuss how alcohol abuse can impact families. Many families have been changed by alcohol in profound and lasting ways.
Alcohol Abuse and Violence Can Go Together
Many times, if you have someone who abuses alcohol, they’ll have a violent temper as well. If someone in your family is a mean drunk, they can become physically abusive if they start having some beers or hard liquor. They can throw things at other family members, punch them, kick them, or otherwise harm them.
Not every drunk is a violent drunk, but where alcohol and mean-tempered individuals go together, cuts, bruises, and broken bones can be the next step. Some violent individuals with drinking problems go so far as to kill their family members if they fly into a rage.
Alcohol Abuse Can Lead to Unstable Work Situations
You might also have a parent or some other family member who acts as the breadwinner for the household, or one of them. If that’s true, and this person starts getting into trouble with alcohol, they can get in the habit of being late for work or missing shifts.
If that happens, their boss can fire them. Maybe they give this person several chances, but if this individual can’t get their act together, they will lose their job.
If that happens, the family suffers financially. You might have a scenario where a parent with an alcohol problem is out of work for an extended time. While that’s going on, the children and other dependents in the household will not have the money to pay for food, medical bills, gas, electricity, and other necessities.
Alcohol Abuse Can Break Families Apart
You may even have a situation sometimes where a parent or someone else in the family gets into such a bad condition with alcohol that the family can no longer stay together. Maybe the parents will divorce if one or both of them can’t stand to be in the same room with each other anymore.
You may have one parent deliver an ultimatum to the other that they must stop drinking. If they’re not able or willing to do it, the family can be torn apart as a result.
The fracturing of a family can have a lifelong impact on the children who come from these broken homes. They are much more likely to struggle with drugs or alcohol themselves to cope with the bitter feelings that remain. They may also need to undergo therapy to talk through the emotions that they still have after an acrimonious divorce or separation that alcohol caused.
These are just some of the ways that alcohol can impact families.
Mom on the go in Holy Toledo 