Is Alcohol Impacting Your Relationship?

Additionally, the use of a mostly Caucasian heterosexual college dating sample limits the generalizability of these findings to more diverse populations and other types of dyads. Future research should explore these relationships in other populations, different settings, and other types of dyadic relationships. Future studies which incorporate reports from both partners in the relationships will allow for exploration of actor and partner effects on motivation to change hazardous alcohol use and relationship issues. Findings also help to explain the long-term positive effects of congruent drinking patterns on relationship satisfaction and stability (Homish & Leonard, 2005; 2007; Leonard et al, 2014). It would be valuable for future research to consider how these discrete events contribute to relationship functioning over time. We hypothesized that drinking with one’s partner would increase the short-term likelihood of experiencing emotional and physical intimacy.

Alcohol’s Effects on the Body

Professionals can provide family support for loved ones affected by addiction and help individuals reach recovery at the same time. After all, partners and families are part of the journey and deserve help returning to normalcy. If your relationship involves heavy drinking and your sex life is suffering, alcohol may be to blame.

You Become a Different Person When You Drink

• These studies provide evidence that certain drinking events—but not others—increase next-day couple functioning.
• It can often be helpful for family members to learn more about alcohol use disorders and explore ways to improve their responses during interactions with someone who has a drinking problem.
• Older adults — drinkers, nondrinkers, it doesn’t matter — are already at risk for hypertension.
• Excessive alcohol use is a term used to describe four ways that people drink alcohol that can negatively impact health.
• Drinking habits can also impact jobs and finances, causing further stress and insecurity.
• A lack of networking and communication with peers may cause further financial problems if the sufferer loses promotion opportunities.

Although the cost of rehab treatment may seem like an additional burden, it is one of the most effective steps that can be taken to restore the individual’s sobriety and finances. Concerns about paying for rehab services should never be a barrier to alcohol addiction treatment. In addition to attending support groups, loved ones of alcoholics may consider 1-on-1 or group therapy. A trained health professional can help family members assist their loved one’s recovery. The brain is highly vulnerable to the damaging effects of alcohol, which disrupts communication between brain cells. Excessive or chronic alcohol use can lead to a steady decline in cognitive function, causing memory problems, difficulty learning new information, mood changes, and behavior changes.

Substance Abuse Treatment

There is a direct correlation between alcohol use in relationships and the quality of intimacy among partners. More specifically, the severity of relationship distress is influenced by alcohol consumption by one (or both) people’s alcohol consumption. The bottom line is that it can cause more arguments, hurt intimacy, and make a person unable to fulfill their role at home.

Signs that alcohol may be negatively impacting your relationships

• Your husband may pick fights with you when he drinks or you’re no longer as intimate as you were before.
• We can’t then get frustrated with those people because we built out a cultural norm around it,” he says.
• As stated above, keeping a distance is necessary to avoid enabling and ensure you don’t become emotionally dependent on helping them.
• In people assigned male at birth, alcohol consumption can decrease testosterone production and sperm quality.

A glass of wine with dinner, drinks with friends at the bar, and a “cheers” to kick off the weekend—alcohol is ingrained in our social rituals. Get professional help from an online addiction and mental health counselor from BetterHelp. Unfortunately, studies consistently demonstrate that, regardless of the sex of the partner with AUD, if at least one person in the relationship has an AUD, the risk of DV how does alcohol affect relationships is high. “Those who drink heavily are three times as likely to be hypertensive” as those who abstain. In an acute sense, consumption of alcohol can lead to uninhibited behavior, sedation, lapses in judgment, and impairments in motor function. Dr. Kling recommends that people going through menopause limit alcohol to one drink a day or less, in addition to eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly.

• When it comes to the bottom line as it relates to alcohol consumption and brain health, the data are rather solid on some fronts, and a bit less so on others.
• They can help determine whether further evaluation may be helpful and whether treatment may be needed.
• Heavy alcohol consumption can also cause malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies which can further contribute to alcohol’s detrimental effects on the brain.
• Chronic alcohol use and binge drinking damage the heart muscle, making it harder for the heart to pump blood effectively.

How does alcohol affect your brain?

If you or someone you love has an alcohol use problem and are concerned about the impact it might be having on family and friends, talk to your healthcare provider. Effective treatments are available, and your provider can advise on next steps. Your provider can prescribe medications that can help people stop drinking and help with symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. They can also recommend treatment programs that may help with detox and recovery. Support from family and friends is essential, but people who make up the individual’s support system also need to be sure that they are caring for themselves. Reaching out to support groups, seeking educational resources, and talking to a mental health professional can all be beneficial if you have a loved one who has an alcohol use problem.

The study described above examined how much alcohol consumption might be too much. Light drinkers (those consuming one to three drinks per week) had the lowest rates of cancer or death compared to those drinking less than 1 drink per week. If you think you may have alcohol use disorder, consider speaking with a healthcare or mental health professional. They can help determine whether further evaluation may be helpful and whether treatment may be needed. But with short-term alcohol use, the effects on your brain are only temporary.

Social and wellness issues

If one or both partners in a relationship struggle with an alcohol use disorder (AUD), it can have detrimental impacts on the relationship and lead to many negative outcomes, such as a lack of intimacy and an increase in infidelity and domestic violence. Most people know that drinking too much can harm your mental and physical health. But alcohol abuse can also hurt the relationships you hold dearest to you—especially the connection between you and your romantic partner. Learning more about how alcohol can affect your relationship is already an incredible step to be proud of. While alcohol can negatively impact your relationship, it’s important to remember that we are not our drinking habits. With time and support, relationships can heal and grow authentically without alcohol.

Is Alcohol Impacting Your Relationship?