Recovery is viewed as a long-term investment in one’s future, with the acknowledgment that the path to sobriety is often accompanied by confronting the darker aspects of alcohol dependence. The sober curious movement, as discussed in Forbes, further emphasizes mindfulness in alcohol consumption and the benefits of abstaining for health reasons. The treatment of depressive disorders with co-occurring addiction can be challenging. Depressive symptoms such as low motivation, low self-worth, and a flat emotional affect may imitate the effects of chemical intoxication or withdrawal.
Behavioral treatments
My understanding of HFAs is also from a personal perspective—I have been in recovery from alcoholism for almost five years. I, too, struggled to see that I could be accomplished academically and then professionally while drinking alcoholically. My image of the alcoholic was always an individual who could not hold his or her life together, and I certainly did not fit that description.
Understanding the Long-Term Impact of High-Functioning Alcoholism
- But they may put themselves or others in danger by drinking and driving, having risky sexual encounters, or blacking out, Benton says.
- Drinking doesn’t just affect the individual; it affects the entire family unit.
Most work full time and have stable relationships along with high earnings. People with high-functioning alcoholism tend to drink every other day and consume five or more drinks per sitting. They are also the most likely of all the alcoholic subtypes to be college-educated, and the least likely to use illegal drugs. A functional alcoholic is also tricky to recognize because they tend to be secretive about their drinking levels and habits. People who have high-functioning alcoholism think that because they can hold down a job and maintain their relationships, they don’t have a problem. They are more likely not to accept help or admit that they need help, and usually, only people who are very close to them will realize the high-functioning alcoholic has a disorder.
- Your doctor can better help you understand your recommendations and how your specific circumstances will translate into diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment.
- However, according to research from 2018, even drinking within governmental “safe” limits, scientifically, still results in harm.
- All types of alcohol use disorder, including high-functioning alcoholism, are treatable.
- People who drink heavily for years on end increase their risk of developing certain cancers and liver disease.
What if your loved one refuses?
These indicators span both physical and psychological domains and can manifest in various aspects of life. According to the latest globally comparable data, men in the Region consumed almost 4 times more alcohol (14.9 litres) than women (4.0 litres) per year. There were over 470 million current drinkers (people who consumed alcohol in the past 12 months) in the Region in 2019, with an average of 2 out of every 3 adults consuming alcohol.
If you are concerned about your loved one’s drinking, it can be helpful to join a support group such as Al-Anon. Such groups can offer valuable support, encouragement, advice, and information. Family members may feel on edge and worried about their loved ones drinking.
Cross-sectional surveys have utility if they employ sound retrospective measures of past drinking status, but this is another qualification of the current epidemiological database on alcohol-related improvement and recovery. Studies with longer-term follow-ups tend to employ smaller, less representative samples. These core issues should be kept in mind when considering the epidemiology of improvements in alcohol-related problems, high functioning alcoholic including recovery from AUD, as discussed next. All types of alcohol use disorder, including high-functioning alcoholism, are treatable. Individuals receive treatment through medications, therapy, support groups, or a combination of the three. Designing the experiment, we emphasized task comprehension, and all decisions that involved money were incentivized (participants were paid for one randomly drawn decision at the end).