Alcohol and the Family

Nicholas Baumann

Professor Galvin

Family Communication

14 March 2016

Alcohol and the Family

Alcoholism is one of the most common addiction problems in the world today.  According to the World Health Organization, “In 2012, about 3.3 million net deaths, or 5.9% of all global deaths, were attributable to alcohol consumption” (“Alcohol”). As is perhaps obvious, alcoholism can cause detrimental problems for individuals. However, what is perhaps not as often discussed is how seriously alcoholism affects the loved ones of the addict. While in recent years more information has been discovered concerning the long term and short term effects of alcohol addiction on loved ones, it is of the upmost importance to continue this research as the effects on loved ones can be far-reaching. Therefore, while alcohol addiction is traditionally seen as an individual problem, in analyzing the effects on family dysfunction, childhood roles, the development of toxic secrets, and children in general, I argue that it is more of a family, or systems-related problem. An analysis of the effects of alcohol addiction in a family will follow.

Alcoholism and Family Dysfunction

        In examining an alcoholic family, the term I will use to refer to a family in which one or more people are alcoholics, one will commonly notice fighting, yelling and simply general dysfunction. In All in the Family: Resources and Referrals for Alcoholism, Mary Ann Barnett states that, “alcoholism is one of the leading causes of a dysfunctional family” (Barnett 467). When a member of the family becomes reliant on alcohol, the entire family is affected, not just the person drinking as some may believe. Barnett states, "Compared to nonalcoholic families, alcoholic families are characterized by higher levels of conflict, lower levels of cohesion, more impaired problem solving, and more hostile communications” (Barnett 468). Simply put, non-alcoholic families possess the communication skills and patterns that alcoholic families desperately lack. This lack of communication skills results in constant fighting and discomfort for many of the family members, resulting in even more stress for the family. The home is supposed to be a safe place for a family. A place where each member can go in times of trouble. However, in an alcoholic family, the home is no longer a safe place for the family, but a place of conflict.

        When a problem arises in a healthy, non-alcoholic household, the members of the family are able to stay calm, cool and collected and generally reach a consensus and a solution to the problem. However, problem-solving is made difficult in an alcohol-dependent household. Jacob and Johnson found in Parenting Influences on the Development of Alcohol Abuse and Dependence that, “families with an alcoholic parent displayed more negative family interaction during problem-solving discussions than did control families in which the parents exhibited no alcoholism…” (Jacob et al. 205). Many families from alcohol-dependent families resort to fighting, screaming and sometimes violence when a problem arises. However, this is not the only form of negative problem-solving, as there are many families who do quite the opposite: ignore the problem in hopes that it will simply disappear, or go away. These are the families that feel uncomfortable fighting and would rather ignore problems then have to talk about them and acknowledge their existence. The end result in both cases is a hostile, or uncomfortable home environment in which problems build up rather than get resolved. Whether these bad problem-solving methods are a result of frustration, anger, resentment, or perhaps a combination of all of them is not clear. What is clear, however, is that alcoholic homes tend to end up with way more problems than solutions.