Alcohol Kills Relationships: are you having an affair with the bottle?

Alcohol problems kill relationships. It's as simple as that. Check out the page that that lead sentence links to and you can find some straight dope from a variety of sources. It isn't all that encouraging news, but what is is.

So, that ol' devil booze messes us and our families up. We've heard that more than a few times, but we don't have a problem with it, me and you, do we? It's those other guys who get out of control.

Not so quick! Unfortunately, as we get older, it takes less alcohol to have bigger effects on us. It sneaks up on us and what was just fine ten years ago can be over the top now. I don't know about you, but when I went through some of the self-screening checklists it made me think a bit more carefully about how I use alcohol.

Not fair you say? Well of course not. Neither is needing less calories to maintain the same weight, but that's the way it is. What are you going to do about it?

There are all kinds of infidelity and they don't necessarily involve other people. Is drinking your affair? Check it out.

Alcohol Problems Over 50 are Relationship Problems

Alcohol problems become relationship problems very quickly and aging makes us more likely to have alcohol problems.


Why? Because our body's ability to deal with the alcohol seems to go down with age making the same amount of alcohol have a greater effect as we get older.


The slip toward drinking too much for us, too much for maintaining our relationships, can really sneak up on us. First, it happens slowly so it may not be noticeable for a long time. And, second, there's something about alcohol use that makes it incredibly difficult to see trouble brewing in ourselves.


As we get older, it is not a bad idea to look at some of the screening questions that professionals ask in assessing risk of alcohol problems. You can find some basic ones here.


Also, it's all relative.


An alcohol counselor friend once told me that the simplest screening is just to ask someone how much they drink. I asked him if they wouldn't tell you a lower amount than they really drink. His response surprised me. I thought he'd say that they have some tricky way to ask or some factor they increase the amount by or something. He said, "People with drinking problems rarely think they have drinking problems and therefore they almost always give an accurate account of how much they drink because they don't see it as abnormal."


So, we aren't likely to see alcohol problems in ourselves, but there are tools to help us take a better look.