What is a functioning alcoholic?

It is an alcoholic’s description of where they are on the downward slide, but it is a lie.

No alcoholics are functioning. They just use alcohol as their crutch.

What they think it means is that they are able to go to work and maintain relationships, but they tend to ignore everyone’s feelings but their own, and to forget about lots of incidents.

@marinelife : wow! using that term is another way they manipulate I guess… interesting interpretation.

I kinda always felt that it meant they could continue their regular lives without their drinking interrupting or hindering their existence. But I think @marinelife is totally right.

Ditto @marinelife!
Functioning alcoholics think they are keeping up appearances on the job but they usually aren’t fooling anyone and end up messing their jobs anyway. They think if they pay their bills and say yes to people as often as they can then they’ll get by but the amount they become forgetful, neglectful, insensitive and in denial of is immense.

Have you looked online at the AA and NA sites? They have chatrooms now for families, friends and spouses/SO’s. If you want to find out what’s going on with your partner then get online if you can’t make consistent meetings. Alcoholics invest almost as much in lying as they do in drinking and they do it thinking it’s for everyone’s best interest. Don’t let this go past you or you’ll soon end up feeling like you’re the depressed and lost one.

I have a different understanding. An alcoholic remains an alcoholic for life, but an alcoholic in recovery—maintaining sobriety, not drinking, working his or her program—is certainly functioning.

I know people who have been in recovery for years and years, and they are not lying or hiding or deceiving, and they are not using their substances of choice, but they are still alcoholics by definition.

If someone’s drinking is causing a problem for you, you can learn a great deal in Al-Anon about how to take care of yourself.

If you are involved with an alcoholic that is in denial and does not seek help, there are AA meetings that you can go to that will help you cope.

You will need to do something for yourself if you love your partner and want to stay together because your love, care, efforts, good intentions, suggestions, whatever- none of those will be enough for the abusing alcoholic to be able to stop drinking. They’ve got to get a really good health scare, lose everything good they’ve got or really want to not be a drinker in order to take some kind of action to get healthier. Trying not to upset them or argue with them or make them feel bad isn’t going to lessen the amount they drink but they sure as hell will try to make you think that you add to their need to drink. Protect yourself while you still have more love than suspicion, fear or bitterness.

A functioning alcoholic needs to drink, but their drinking does not affect their ability to do their job, pay their bills, etcetera.

Now, if they lose jobs due to their alcoholism or spend so much on booze that they can’t pay their rent, then they are not functional.

Basically, the difference is how much alcohol affect their lives.

As for how it affects the lives of those around them… well, that is a separate issue, but it should go without saying that alcoholism, functional or not, is a bad thing. Trust me, I’ve known both types.

My father-in-law is an alcoholic. He has his own insurance business and is doing very well with it. He pays his bills, takes care of himself and his responsibilities, and is a generous and helpful person.

However, he is also a bit like @marinelife described above. In the morning, he is great. In the early afternoon, he is entertaining. By late afternoon and into evening, he is frustrating and sometimes turns into a complete asshole. He doesn’t get to the asshole stage every day, but when he does we all recognize it and know it’s time for us to leave if we are visiting. I feel bad for my mother-in-law sometimes because she has to live with him. At least he passes out falls asleep in front of the TV early, around 7:00, so she doesn’t have to put up with him long in that state.

When he knows he has something he needs to be responsible for, like if our kids are spending the night, he will drastically reduce the amount he drinks. If we’re at a big family party out of town, he will usually manage to control himself. If he has to stop drinking for a while because of some medication, he will. However, when he’s doing his usual thing and drinking from noon on, he can get to that point where he clearly doesn’t care about the effects of his words. If he says something to offend one of us, or is rude to one of the kids (and this does not happen often, but it has happened), he’ll call the next morning and apologize. When he is sober, he truly regrets what he’s said, but when he’s still drunk, he doesn’t care about anything.

So, I’d say he’s a functional alcoholic. He is not interested in changing at all. One summer, he seemed to be on a binge and was out of control almost every night. We had to ask him to stop coming over if he’d been drinking because it was awful to see him falling into the bushes or acting like a jerk and then have the kids ask what was wrong with him. One night my mother-in-law showed up at our house, fed up and talking about leaving him. At that point he was not functional. Since then, he’s had his act together quite a bit more.

It’s sad, because he is very smart and very personable when he is sober. I guess that’s why he spends each morning working very hard on his business. He can then take the rest of the day off to drink and yell at the commentators on Fox News or CNN.

I know a functioning alcoholic who is always ok at his job but is sloppy drunk at home. He thinks he is pulling it off but the family has been very hurt and embarassed on many occassions by this. He is also no fun when he staggers around.
You can not talk to him about anything when he is drinking. The kids finally “got to him” and he is trying. But trying is not enough they want him to quit.
I guess that is functional at one place in his life. It is so sad, he is so nice.

This is an excellent question. I was a funtioning alcoholic while I was drinking, and now in recovery, I function on a much different level.

Some interesting things have been written here in response to your question. I disagree that no alcoholic is functioning. I managed to keep a very high paying job with a Fortune Top 10 company. I earned a master’s degree. I did all the daily things that living life requires. But, I did it all to get myself that next drink.

That was my goal. That was what I worked for, longed for, at times, even panted for.

I never drank before 5 p.m. on weeknights and never before noon on weekends and holidays. So I told myself that I wasn’t an alcoholic. Never mind that when I did hit the bottle, I put away in an evening what most people drank in a couple of months.

What was written about alcoholics being selfish is true. I was extremely self-centered, and my life revolved around getting me the next drink. It didn’t matter that the next drink was hours away. I was fixated on it.

Working the 12 steps changed all that. I function on a different level now. I still do all the things that are required for living life daily, but I do them with heart. I hope I am not as selfish as I once was.

If you are having difficulty with a SO who may be an alcoholic, I recommend finding an Al-Anon meeting by looking them up online or in your phonebook. They can help.

To understand what a functioning alcoholic is, we need to know what an alcoholic is. Professionals have technically replaced the term alcoholic with alcohol dependent or alcohol dependence.

Criteria for Alcohol Dependence (3 criteria for over 1 year)
Tolerance (increased drinking to achieve same effect)
Alcohol Withdrawal signs or symptoms
Drinking more than intended
Unsuccessful attempts to cut down on use
Excessive time related to Alcohol (obtaining, hangover)
Impaired social or work activities due to Alcohol
Use despite physical or psychological consequences

Less serious is alcohol abuse:

Criteria for Alcohol Abuse (1 or more criteria for over 1 year)
Role Impairment (e.g. failed work or home obligations)
Hazardous use (e.g. Driving, swimming or operating machinery while intoxicated)
Legal problems related to Alcohol use
Social or interpersonal problems due to Alcohol

Reference: DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 181–3

Mark Keller’s A Dictionary of Words about Alcohol does not list functioning alcoholic. However, it would appear to refer to an alcoholic who functions well or at least adequately in society. That, in turn, implies that almost all alcoholics (alcohol dependent people) are functioning alcoholics.