Last Updated on February 5, 2025 by Beth Skwarecki
When someone is alcohol-dependent, life can get challenging at times. Alcohol has a way of negatively impacting relationships, and romantic relationships often suffer the most from the effects of alcoholism. It usually impacts intimacy, trust, and emotional availability while fostering miscommunication, financial hardship, and sometimes even abuse. Alcohol abuse can lead to significant rifts between partners, children, and other family members in ways that can be difficult to heal.
Alcohol and Intimacy
How alcohol use disrupts intimacy can be widespread. Heavy drinking can take its toll on the stability of the relationship and intimacy, how affection is shown, and meeting expectations, respect, and values. Abusive behavior, whether physical, emotional, or verbal, is another way alcoholism negatively impacts a couple’s intimacy.
Alcohol is also known to decrease the libido, which can add even further stress to an already strained relationship. Heavy drinking also leads to an increase in conflicts between a couple. Utah sober living homes are a great idea for those working to rebuild their lives and restore the intimacy lost in a romantic relationship.
Alcohol and Trust
Because alcohol abuse disorder often brings significant changes to a person’s personality, they tend to become less and less recognizable to those who care about and love them. Some alcoholics become very secretive and withdrawn because of fear or shame, while others become more outspoken, angry, or irritable.
The alcoholic may benign to lie about where they’ve been, who they were with, or how much they’ve consumed. The lies and misdirection often lead to a lack of trust within the relationship. Trust is a cornerstone in any romantic relationship, and heavy drinking can erode the trust to such a degree that a divorce or breakup becomes unavoidable.
Getting Help
If you or your partner is suffering from alcoholism, it’s essential to seek help before things go even further. The damage that heavy drinking has on romantic relationships is hard to move past alone. Not only do couples benefit from joint therapy, but the partner with the drinking problem needs individual therapy with an addiction specialist who can help with identifying triggers, defining realistic goals, and addressing the deeper issues behind the alcohol abuse.
The significant other needs to hold the alcoholic accountable for their behavior and how it has impacted the relationship because alcoholism affects the family of the alcoholic just as much as it does the alcoholic. Recovery is significantly affected by a person’s support system or lack thereof.
Final Words
If you’re concerned about alcoholism ruining your relationship, it is in your best interest to act now. Putting off addressing the issue will only allow feelings of share, guilt, and resentment to grow and fester. Talk openly about your concerns and be truthful. Open and honest communication is a crucial part of rebuilding trust and relationships. At some point, you will have to decide whether or not alcohol is more important than your relationship and what you are willing to do to save it.
Beth is Cloudmineinc’s senior health editor and a certified personal trainer. She has over 10 years experience as a science journalist and is the author of two books. She deadlifts over 315 lbs.