Mary (alias) recently took the Alcoholism Test and then emailed me. (She didn’t leave a public comment because she wanted her communication to be confidential.)
Although a few details are changed or omitted to protect Mary’s privacy, she began with
"I was researching functional alcoholism and came across your site. I took the Alcoholism Test to determine if my husband would be considered a functioning alcoholic. I have not yet spoken with anyone about this, but just researched Al-Anon and plan on attending a meeting…"
Mary goes on to make the following points:
Married for 19 years.
Husband a drinker, mostly drinking alone.
He has been drinking more during the last 5-6 years (now more than two liters/week of hard liquor.)
Being married to a functioning alcoholic is a big problem. Tens of thousands of families in North America alone are struggling with the issue.
For a minority of people social drinking can gradually deteriorate into alcohol abuse and eventually into alcohol dependence. The drinking could have started in a lot of different ways, but that’s not what’s important. What is important is that the drinking became a habit and the habit became alcohol dependence or alcoholism. It matters not a hoot whether the alcohol is in the form of beer, wine or hard liquor.
Anyone who abuses alcohol long enough or heavily enough eventually will have problems with memory. The functioning alcoholic will have memory problems. His memory problems are simply less severe than those of the skid-row alcoholic.
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The subject of alcoholic blackouts is a controversial one. The argument that a person was in an alcoholic blackout and didn’t know what he was doing at the time has been used in court successfully to help people avoid the legal consequence of their actions. Lawyers have used the argument of the alcoholic blackout to help a man avoid the legal consequences of beating his wife to death or of killing someone while driving drunk.
For someone to be convicted of a crime he has to know the difference between right and wrong at the time of the crime. When he goes to court and has no recollection of the incident, his lawyer argues that he was not conscious of what he was doing when he committed the crime.
Drinking alcohol is very much a part of Western culture. It is almost a rite of passage. And most people who drink alcohol don't get into any real trouble with it.
But some do get into trouble. As individuals and as a society we need to recognize when drinking alcohol becomes alcohol abuse, so we can do something about it.
Do you want a better lifefor you and your family? Then check out Dr. Neill Neill's new ebook, "Living with a Functioning Alcoholic - A Woman's
Survival Guide" Read More
Mary goes on to make the following points:
Being married to a 
