Families & Friends Of Addicts Support Group
Addiction affects more than just the individual. This community is dedicated to the families and friends of individuals suffering from any form of addiction. Mental health professionals are increasingly considering alcoholism and addiction as diseases that flourish in and are enabled by family systems. Family members react to the addicted person with particular behavioral...
My friend sent me this. She has 12 years clean and sober and finds a lot of good stuff.
The functioning addict is the addict who can hold down a job, pursues a career or cares for children while continuing his or her addiction. Some can do these things unsuccessfully, but how well do they handle the other functions in living? How do they function in the role of spouse, parent, driver, financial manager and community
volunteer? His job or profession isn't his only function in life.
Two famous entertainers come to mind, a very popular late-night TV host and a famous singer-entertainer: both were alcoholics, but both
were also known to be wife beaters. We are all aware of other public examples: the successful politician charged with impaired driving,
the wealthy businessman who abandons his family, claiming poverty.
Multiply the public examples of alcohol abuse and dysfunction by a thousand, and you get a picture of the neglect, abuse, lies and cover-
up that are probably out there among the population of so-called functioning alcoholics:--- the alcoholic farmer who sexually abuses his young daughters, the alcoholic teacher who amasses a large
collection of child porn, the mother whose children die in a house fire because she had passed out with a needle in her arm.
Consider the successful professional who pours himself a drink as soon as he gets home. Since he won't drink and drive, he never attends his children's games or takes them camping. Is he "functioning?"
What it comes down to is this: to function is to function in life,not just in one part of life. The notion of the functioning addict is
a myth. The phrase "functioning alcoholic" or "functional addict" is an oxymoron.
Functioning means fulfilling your potential and pursuing your dreams as best you can within the actual limits of circumstances. And
functioning is a long-term matter, not just a temporary condition.
Since none of these descriptions of functioning is consistent with being an alcoholic or an addict.....Have you? ???? Ever met a functional alkie or addict????
The functioning addict is the addict who can hold down a job, pursues a career or cares for children while continuing his or her addiction. Some can do these things unsuccessfully, but how well do they handle the other functions in living? How do they function in the role of spouse, parent, driver, financial manager and community
volunteer? His job or profession isn't his only function in life.
Two famous entertainers come to mind, a very popular late-night TV host and a famous singer-entertainer: both were alcoholics, but both
were also known to be wife beaters. We are all aware of other public examples: the successful politician charged with impaired driving,
the wealthy businessman who abandons his family, claiming poverty.
Multiply the public examples of alcohol abuse and dysfunction by a thousand, and you get a picture of the neglect, abuse, lies and cover-
up that are probably out there among the population of so-called functioning alcoholics:--- the alcoholic farmer who sexually abuses his young daughters, the alcoholic teacher who amasses a large
collection of child porn, the mother whose children die in a house fire because she had passed out with a needle in her arm.
Consider the successful professional who pours himself a drink as soon as he gets home. Since he won't drink and drive, he never attends his children's games or takes them camping. Is he "functioning?"
What it comes down to is this: to function is to function in life,not just in one part of life. The notion of the functioning addict is
a myth. The phrase "functioning alcoholic" or "functional addict" is an oxymoron.
Functioning means fulfilling your potential and pursuing your dreams as best you can within the actual limits of circumstances. And
functioning is a long-term matter, not just a temporary condition.
Since none of these descriptions of functioning is consistent with being an alcoholic or an addict.....Have you? ???? Ever met a functional alkie or addict????
There are so many addicts in the world. Oh well, at least we can learn about it here and that helps us.